Indestructible
by Kali Ayers
Summary: Meruran Erufib is the typical human girl, except for the habit of surviving things she shouldn't. This little thing effects one in three and a half million, and there is a toddler that needs it to help. HieiOC Keeps to timeline after Sensu
1. Indestructible

_Promise, it's not as bad as it looks, she's not the typical Mary-Sue. (It IS a self-insert, forgive me, but I like who I am. I tried not to be too perfect, I have a bad habit about doing that, but there are complexes and not-perfect things and problems in the character, and I didn't go out of my way to describe beauty, at any point. Oh, shut up, stop looking at me like that.)  
_

_Hello. This one will be long, a warning now._

_I tried to be original._

_Please read it. Flames welcome. Reviews welcome, too. Suggestions, corrections, all that, I'm up for anything, I just want to know what people think.  
_

_Also- if anyone has an opinion on this-- Um, do you guys MIND second person (i.e. the "you" thing instead of "she" or "I"?) thing? 'cos. I mean. Some like it, some don't, but I wrote it that way first. I could just replace these chapters.  
_

_Doumo. Saijonara._

_Ah, yeah. And, um, I tried to be nice with the languages, all the stuff not in the dominant language of the chapter (or my SI) is in italics. _

-R.F.

* * *

_Indestructible_

"Hey MER! C'mere, bitch!"

She tries to tune them out. One blares his car horn. She flips him off. She went out early, tonight. Dumbass. She knew better than that.

He does it again. "COME HERE!"

She pushes her thumbnail into her palm to see how sharp it is. It's pretty sharp. An inch long, too. That'll be good, won't it?

So she turns on her toes to approach them.

One stays. The rest shut themselves up in the car. She walks up to him.

"Hey. You gonna cast a spell on me?" Ah, this whole thing again. God, that was eighth grade, and a temporary switch of religion, why the hell--

"You can't be serious. No, I'm not," she sighs annoyedly, staring up at him with cold blue eyes. She's fixed her face so that the expression is colder than normal--she tightens the corners of her mouth just enough to straighten out that curl, she narrows her eyes a little (not enough to make the muscles look too tensed), and she keeps her teeth apart in her closed mouth to elongate her face. He looks at her and smirks.

"You can't cast a spell, huh? Don't wanna turn me into a frog?"

"Don't have to, you're already a pile of shit, why would I wanna do you the favor of turning you into a higher creature? Do me a favor, and take this into consideration." She holds up her hand. "Look at the fingernails. You see how pointed they are?"

He gawps a second. "So what? They can't hurt, and I'll punch you if you even try."

She holds her thumb up. "Doesn't matter. All I need is to get this to your eye. Just a scratch, and I can pop that little ocular organ right out of your skull. You know that? You hit me, whatever hand you hit me with will be busy, and all I'll have to do is move fast enough to get through that opening. You're a big person- you're slow. It'll be so easy. And tonight is the wrong night to push me."

He gets into the car. "Jeez, I was just playing. Dude, let's go."

The car speeds off. She sits on the ground against the coke machines as soon as they're out of sight. She's really tired, for some reason. She always gets tired when she's threatening someone. Her heart is beating harder than she's used to.

Insolent fuckers.

At least they didn't challenge her. She'd be torn between keeping her word and not hurting the guy.

Tonight... sucks. That's about all she has to say or think about it. She's tired, she feels horrible, she's achey, and something just feels _wrong_.

She had decided earlier that night to go out walking. She left early, tonight, because there was no one online, and she didn't feel well. Unfortunately, the idiots are still out at this time of night, and they love to mock her. It was a wonder they even bothered sticking around after calling her over, this time.

Phantom footsteps sound a little to the north, and she jumps nearly a foot in the air and freezes in her walking to see if it continues. No, it's gone. Dammit.

"Will you knock it off?" she shouts at it. "Fucking bastards, you've been doing this for too long." And they have. For months, she's been hearing noises that come from nothing, and it's starting to piss off. Every once in a while, she can entertain the fantasy that it's a ghost or stalker or something, but never for long. There have been flickers of motion, the feeling of being watched, weird chills, and things touching her... She thought it was a ghost, for a while, but only some of those actions were his. Some things, he can't do. Most of the time, all he ever did was float in doorways and touch her.

A flash of light makes her jump, and she snaps to in order to look at it, but nothing's there.

If these are hallucinations, they're awful creative.

"Whoever the hell you are, wish you'd cut it out and just come the hell out," she mumbles quietly. She gets back to her feet and starts moving again, this time, out the back way, down where she's certain no one will be waiting.

While she's walking, she starts thinking again. The thoughts are empty and meaningless, but she allows them to continue through her head. So far, she's been wandering aimlessly, and her body feels like it's asleep. She starts wondering if she's even real. Pain would be a relief, to wake her up. A purpose, that's what she needs. Someone to take her away, take her somewhere fun. Too bad the only reason anyone kidnaps anyone is a bad idea. The power or money offered by rape/murder and ransom.

"Wow, that's depressing," she says aloud when she realizes what she's thinking about. She dismisses the thoughts as she crosses the school yard and run to the shadows to hide, dodging the guard. She creeps around back and climbs onto the railing and reaches over to grab the edge of the roof and dangle helplessly for a second until she starts to drag herself up. Her arms shake and she can feel the strain, and she tries to kick off the wall, but there's nothing for her feet to catch. She gets up to about chin height, and she switches one arm around, but then she drops hrrself onto her chin and she dangles again. Dammit.

She tries again and pulls herself back up and rolls onto the roof and sits for a second, grinning triumphantly. She hears a soft noise below her and she looks down, but nothing's there. When she looks back over the roof, she sees a flicker of motion, and she goes to look at where it disappeared, and she swears a little when she doesn't find anything.

"Goddammit," she curses, crawling behind the wall along the edge of the roof and keeping out of sight of the people on the road, and she goes to the auditorium's roof and climbs up and lies down on the edge of the wall with one leg dangling off.

She starts thinking about Cody back there. She wonders if she could bring herself to take out his eye, really. She doubts it. She's a brave person, and she will go to incredible lengths to prove a point, but she doesn't like hurting people. He's one of those people that used to make fun of her, before she hit him in the face with an apple in the seventh grade, then convinced everyone she was a witch and "cursed' a boy in class in eighth grade. Cody still likes to exact revenge from a distance. She normally ignores him, but tonight, she's on edge.

She really doesn't think she could have really hurt him. She would have tried and let him hold her back, or limited it to knocking him down and showing him that she could have done it.

What was wrong with him that he couldn't leave her alone, anyway? All of these jackasses... Just can't be nice to anyone, can anyone? Even she's cold, though. She doesn't make fun of anyone, though. Humanity... sucks, she decides, for the hundredth time. If it were up to her, she'd just be alone, and the race would die out when she bit the big one.

And, again, she wishes she were somewhere else. She wishes she were somewhere that didn't have... people.

She's about to give in to whatever sadness that is lurking outside her mind. It's been bugging the shit out of her for an age and a half, and she's not sure what's causing it, but she doesn't have any money for ice cream.

"Fu-- AAH!"

She started to say "fuck this shit", but she were interrupted when she realized that there was someone standing on the edge of the roof. She only just heard him come up. She sits bolt upright and falls off her perch, and she barely catches herself, saving her from the thirty foot fall.

"_Kuso_," the person standing there says, and she can hear quick footsteps before his face appears over her. She almost drops, not sure what to do, now, but he grabs her wrist before she lets go, and he pulls her up easily, as if she were as light as a doll.

"_Daijobu ka_?" he asks quickly after she gets her feet on the ground again.

"_Daijou_," she answers, looking at him. She's only half aware that he spoke to her in Japanese and that she answered the same way. He's a little taller than her, ruddy-skinned, with slicked back black hair and rounded brown eyes, but just looking at him lets her know he's not from around here. In fact, he's about twelve time zones away. (Maybe thirteen or fourteen, she never did manage to get those straight.) His white t-shirt and blue jeans and tennis shoes kind of ease the out-of-placeness of him, but it's still clear that he is not where he belongs.

"_Matte. Hanasu Nihongo ka?_" he asks, looking confused.

"_Iie. Anata hanasu Eigo ka_?"

"_Iie. Kuso_," he mumbles. Then he looks over to a different part of the roof and calls out, "_Oi! Kurama_!" She hears a set of footsteps, and she looks over to see a girly-looking boy with long red hair approaching. He looks more American than his friend, but he's still just as Japanese as the other one. Blue-jeans as well, though his legs don't look as gangly, and the fitting green polo shirt makes less effort than the loose Tee to hide his almost bizarrely pretty slim figure. When he looks at her, she can see that his eyes are green, too. Odd.

"K... Hello," the guy says. Apparently, this is Kurama. "I apologize if we've startled you." He's not real sure how to speak English, at first, but he seems to figure it out after he gets a few words into his second sentence. He looks nervous. She feels a little more confident, seeing their disease, but she's still confused. The first boy doesn't move- he keeps behind the red-head with his arms crossed, and he doesn't say anything.

"Well, I don't care that much about the being startled, but... How'd you get up here?" Then a second question occurs to her. "Oi, you're the freaks that've been making all those weird sounds!"

The redhead smiles bashfully and puts his head down a bit. He isn't looking at her, she notices. He never was. She tries to remember if that's an Asian thing or not--she knows the custom differences...

"I suppose that I should come right out and say it then," he says simply. He seems more confident, now. He was trying to figure out how to tell her that they had been following her. Damn. "Yes, we are. We've been following you for the better part of six months. And tonight is the night the spying is ending. If you are willing, we are going to take you with us to meet someone. You have every right to refuse, but we cannot, and will not, answer questions now."

The first boy she met asks the red-headed one something beginning with "What", and the red-head answers with three words that she doesn't understand. Whatever he said, though, it pisses off the first one, and he grabs the red-head's collar and starts shouting. The red-head reacts calmly, taking hold on the first one's wrist and taking it off his shirt, and he speaks for a second until, finally, he looks back at her.

"If you would, we would appreciate if you climbed down and came with us."

"Uh." A series of thoughts rush through her head. There had been a certain emptiness of mind that heard everything, and now she is letting it sink in. It was very easy to believe that these two had been following her for a while- it explained a lot, and was actually a relief. Go with them, she thinks. Her instincts trust them. She's uneasy, but she is already moving toward them. She watches as her body moves for them, but then she freezes herself. _Why am I hesitating?_ she asks her. _Weren't we just wishing someone would come take us away? Weren't we just thinking about how cool it would be to be taken somewhere? Didn't we need a purpose?_

"Take your time," the red-head says gently. "I understand your distrust, but we will not harm you." He's looking at her, now, watching her think. Something about him seems. Off. He's hiding something, she guesses. Could it be a plot? If they're about to kill me, I can take down one of them. I'm tough enough--I'll deal with getting marked up. There are people near here, they'll hear the screaming. Pay phone too.

"Fuck it, let's go. Give me a minute, I'll get to where I can drop."

* * *

Notes: Conversation in Japanese I wrote out-

"Are you okay?"  
"I'm okay."

"Wait. You speak Japanese?"

"No. You speak English?"

"No. Shit. Hey, Kurama!"


	2. The Beginning

_The Beginning_

When she lands and she's greeted by two faces she didn't see on the roof. Well, greeted by a chest and a large pile of hair, really, but she looks at their faces after a second. The first one is a six-something boy with a long face and an Elvis-esque hairdo in orange, also clad in blue jeans and white tee, though he looks bigger and stronger than the black-haired boy on the roof. Despite this, he has less presence, and something about him seems less dark. The second one is either five feet tall, or just under it (Jeez, he's shorter than me, I thought that was hard.) and he has very tall black hair with white bits sticking up in his bangs, and dressed in what looks… she almost says a dress, but it has no sleeves, and when he moves his arm, it opens. A. Well, that's no less weird, but she's worn a cloak in public before. She forgets to be surprised by their appearances. She does wonder how the short one got his hair to do that, 'cos it looks fluffy, and when she tried to spike hers, it was all crunchy. She almost touches it, but he catches her wrist in his hand and squeezes. She winces a little when his grip begins to grind the bones together.

The red-haired guy shouts something in Japanese as he moves over, she half-recognizes it as "stop". "_Hiei! Yameru_!"

The short one looks up at her and she can see that his eyes are red, but she stares down at him and tries to not let the pain show. He smirks a little and lets go of her, then stalks towards a set of double doors in the school.

"I apologize for him. He is easily angered, and he doesn't bother with restraint. He won't talk much, but if he does, try to not be too offended," Kurama says lightly, patting her back. "I don't think anyone else here speaks much English, so I suggest we get a move on. Come with us."

The first boy and the tall one start moving, and the red-head gives her a light push with a guiding hand between her shoulder blades and lower back. She, not used to the contact and not liking having her back touched, pulls away from him and follows the other two. He respects it and lets her lead, but he still follows closely. She tries to get over it.

When she get through the doors, a bright light blinds her, and she's confused. This is not what's typically through this door. She look around and see several things- Several people with horns and loincloths running around, lots of papers and phones. There's only one human here, and when she sees him, she's kind of stricken with the idea that he's not exactly human. She doesn't know what he is, but there's something about him... The whole place, actually... it feels... kind of... It's like the difference when one steps into an elevator, like the floor isn't really there and firm, or there's something...

He's a little taller than her, and he's semi-cute, and he's got a tattoo that says "Jr." on his forehead, and he's wearing purplish-blue and red robes. His eyes are strangely colored- brown with strange not-quite-shading, and his hair is brown, and she notices a blue pacifier in his mouth. His face is one of surprise and welcoming. She's trying to figure out if he has an ulterior motive or what. He looks nervous.

"Welcome to Spirit World, Merlin Elffib," he says in a strangely high voice, giving her a slight bow. "Thank you for coming with the boys so easily, I know that it's confusing for you, but I appreciate your cooperation."

She looks him over, then she looks at the four boys around her, and at the people with horns, and she's trying to figure out why she's not being driven mad. Then she decides that she was already insane, and she looks back at the one with the pacifier.

"She can understand us, now, right?" the first one she met asks. She turn back to him. He's looking at her, almost penetratingly. She's uneasy again.

"Yes, Yuusuke, she can. Shall we go into my office?"

"Sure," she mumbles, confused. She's half sure this is a joke, now. The wary feeling keeps coming and going, though the uncertainty is there to stay, as far as she figures. She follows the brown-haired boy through the room and went into a fairly spacious... Well, yeah, office. Desk. Ugly decor. Carpet. Pretty chair. Papers in a stack. And a blue guy standing there, looking around like he's expecting the world to crash down around his ears at any second. The boy gets into his chair and sits back, looking uncomfortable. The other four boys stand around, and two lean against the wall, the two black-haired ones. Suddenly, she feels much better. Everyone else is on edge, and so is the boy in the chair, and even if that's not good, they're distracted, and they're afraid something will go wrong that isn't related to her (I guess) and therefore, it will be easier to get away.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I called you here," the boy says, leaning on his desk and folding his hands on it. "Go ahead and have a seat," he adds, gesturing at the chair. She wonders for a second if he's aware of how lame he looks, trying to look cool like that. Then she decides that he doesn't, and she takes him up on the offer of a seat, and sits down in the floor. He leans down to look at her, and she shifts her legs so her feet are more comfortable, but she gets stabbed with something in the foot.

"Ow."

"What...?"

She folds her leg into her lap and start picking at it. She realizes they're all staring at her, especially the pacifier sucking one, so she looks back up at him. "Don't mind me- what do you want with me?"

"Oh, come on, at least look at me," he says annoyedly.

"There's something in my foot!" she objects, looking up at him and putting her arms down. "The hell!?"

He sighs. "You never were one for showing respect, were you?" he whines. "Whatever. Boys, do me a favor and get out of here," he says, looking at the four along the wall.

Both the orange-haired one and the first one she met, Yuusuke, stand up straight and whine loudly.

"Come ON, Koenma, we're the ones that were stuck spying on her, we're the ones that brought her here, and we were the ones that had to go talk to her!"

"Kurama did most of the talking, and you have a second job to do anyway!" Koenma answers, standing up and putting his hands firmly on his desk. He's suddenly a lot angrier than he was before this. "Do what you're supposed to do for ONCE!"

Yuusuke sighs, and so does the tall one, and the red-head and the short one follow them out the doors. She hears someone whisper "stupid", and she hears another one say something about "have to go get", too, and she waits.

When the doors close behind them, Koenma sits back down. She hears them press to the door to listen. So does Koenma, by the look on his face- He looks annoyed, and, for a second, he puts his hand to his head, like he's embarrassed.

"I am-" he begins. She cuts him off.

"Koenma."

"Yes. What names didn't you catch?" he asks.

"Kurama's the red-head, and Yuusuke's the one with the slicked back black hair. H. H. Shit. Hiei, he's the short one. Who's the tall one?"

"Kuwabara."

"Alright. Why am I here?"

Instead of answering directly, he starts on another topic of conversation altogether. His face is still sincere. "Do you remember when you were twelve and you broke your arm?"

"Yeah. I brag about how my bones shifted." She wants to ask what this has to do with anything, but he looks like he has a point, so she waits for him to make it.

"That fall would have killed someone else."

"Yeah... I'm tough."

"You are. You're very tough. Have you noticed how much harder it is to kill you than it should be?"

"Huh?"

"An asthma attack that turns your skin blue is only a mild pain in the ass. You are stronger than should be possible with your activity. When something chokes you, you can still breathe. You can reach into fire. You've noticed all these things, have you not?"

She knew this, but she never really noticed how many of those were in place at once. Huh. "Yeah, so?"

"It's not just 'tough' that makes you like this. You remember how durable your grandfather is? A quadruple bypass and a stroke on the table, with a full physical recovery, even though it should have killed him? After two double bypasses, and that heart valve they gave him that was supposed to last ten years that lasted twenty? Flipping a dump truck on himself?"

"Twice," she adds. "What of it?"

"It's an indestructibilty offered to few. There are about two thousand of you on earth at any given time."

"What?"

"You are immortal. Sort of."

"No, I'm not."

"You cannot be killed. If I were to have my boys come in here and try to kill you, they'd be perfectly unable to. You are protected by fate and luck."

"How?"

"You survived your death," he answers. "You were supposed to die."


	3. What?

_What?_

"I was supposed to die?"

"Yes. So was your grandfather. And so was your friend Brent. You remember the story about dropping his radio in the tub with him and not a scratch?"

"What don't you know about me?" she asks.

"Not a lot- we tend to notice your kind, though- the interrupted fate lines confuse things, and we have to fix them. But do you remember?"

"Yeah."

"He was supposed to die when he was eleven due to a head injury obtained while tray-boarding."

She grins at the memory of his explaining what "Tray-boarding" is. It's like snowboarding. Only with cafeteria trays with stairs. "One of his friends that was sick that day that wasn't supposed to go with them happened to be there, and had a cell phone to call an ambulance with."

"How was I supposed to die? Why didn't I?"

He smiles. "It's simple. When you hit your head when you were a baby, your skull cracked, rather than went squishy and crushed your brain- that was physically impossible. Your mother knew how to keep you awake- she wasn't supposed to. And not only that, but your grandfather was going to stop for dinner, but his blood sugar was lower than normal and he didn't have the patience to wait like he was supposed to."

"So, what- we go by luck?"

"Pretty much. Just little chances that changes your whole life. Mainly because your life is supposed to end."

"So, what, it's the opposite of Final Destination? I missed my death, so I live until I get too old to?"

"Yes, exactly. There are some things that can kill you. Old age is one of them. Suicide is another. And if someone else that dodged their death tries to kill you, they can."

"So. I'm immortal as in, shot in the heart don't die?"

He nods. "In essence. Only rather than surviving a shot to the heart, it would have missed your heart and lungs entirely. Something would find a way to save you."

"Kick-ass. But that doesn't tell me why I'm here. There are two thousand of us. Why would you want to tell me this after sixteen years?"

"We need you to help us."

"From the looks of it, they don't need my help. They could climb up a thirty foot wall with no problem, and jump from it just as easily. Plus, I gotta stay home. Mom needs me to cook and clean and crap. My grandparents need me, too. I can't just disappear at odd times." She gets up and start for the door, but the brown haired boy moves closer to her, circling his desk and touching at her arm for her attention.

"Kurama told you that you had better choose wisely. Do you remember this?" he asks.

"You're not keeping me here against my will," she answers, turning back to face him. A strange anger bubbles in her insides, and she considers how many ways she can hurt him, and she wonders if it would do any good.

"You made your choice already," he answers. He looks hurt. Her fists clench, and she considers sinking your sharpened nails into his neck, but she restrains herself.

"I'm leaving," she answers, going to the door and starting to push it open. It refuses to move. The knob is turning, and there's no other lock. She kicks it, hard, but it doesn't work. She grounds her feet and presses herself to it and try to push it open. It gives a little, and cracks, and she keeps pushing until she manages to get her foot and elbow into the door, and she uses them to pry open the door.

"Don't, Meruran! You'll get yourself hurt!" Koenma objects.

"Didn't you just tell me I'm immortal? What have I got to worry about?" she barks back, working herself through the door a little at a time, until she finally manages to get through enough to just finish pulling her hip and leg through. Her foot almost gets slammed in the door, but she manages to make it with just a minor scrape, and she storms through the room with all the monsters.

"Meruran," she hears the voice of Kurama say from somewhere to her left. "I'm afraid that he's right. You can't leave here. He'd have to make a passage to our world for you to even leave here, and he won't. You have to stay with us."

"Fuck you guys, I wanna go home!" she shouts, looking him in the face. He looks sorry, and the shouting is evidently painful- his face is scrunched. "If you watched me so long, you oughtta know that making me do something I don't want to is as good as worthless!" she continues, feeling that she wasn't done screaming and wanting to do more of it.

"Meruran, please," Koenma says from the door.

"Don't bother. I say if she wants to go home, let her," the short one says. It's the first time she's heard him open his mouth. "There's no way she'll play doctor for us if she doesn't want to."

"Doctor?" she echoes, confused.

"We need a healer that can accompany us. If you heard why we need your help, you might be less reluctant," explains Kurama.

"What the hell do you need a healer for?" she snaps irritably.

"We are not exactly as hardy as we seem. Our enemies have grown stronger as we've grown stronger."

"You have enemies?"

"We are called Spirit Detectives. Yuusuke is actually the only one officially hired, but we accompany him so often that we ourselves almost qualify," the red-head continues explaining patiently. Something in his voice is calming- probably the fact that he's so calm himself. Almost like if it started raining blood, he wouldn't be the least bit surprised, and would explain why it happened. "We work for Spirit World, and we protect the human and demon races alike. We are not, however, invincible. Our enemies have grown stronger faster than we have, and we are often injured, as aforementioned, and we are in need of a healer that can follow us into battle."

"I want to go home. I'm not that great, there are two thousand people like me, call on one of them!"

"We chose you for a reason, Meruran," Koenma says. "You fit the personality profile we need."

"What the hell does that mean?"

Kurama decides to answer her, first. "I will explain if you will come with me. This will take some time, and you will want to be more comfortable."


	4. New Home

_New Home_

Something about Kurama is starting to actually make her feel odd, but it's not that big a deal, she decides. She follows him through the big door. Another bright light startles her, but when the light fades, she is in a street, in daylight, in a small city that, after she looks around at the people around her, she figures is Japanese.

He starts talking, but he speaks in Japanese for a second before he remembers that she doesn't speak Japanese. He looks at her and she smiles dumbly, and he returns the dumb smile, then gestures by pointing, probably meaning "this way" or "it's up ahead" or whatever.

He leads her to an apartment complex and up some stairs, until he seems satisfied, and he leads her up several floors, up to a room near the corner and lets her in. As she goes inside, he hands her a set of keys.

"This is where you will be staying. Yuusuke- the first young man you met- is down the hall. I don't think it will do you any good to know that until you speak proper Japanese. The former owner of this room passed away rather recently, and he paid a year in advance just last month, so you have eight more months to live here before you have to get a job and pay for things yourself. We convinced the propieter that you are a neice and you were planning to move here to take care of him."

Koenma (Whom she was surprised to see again, because she didn't notice him walking behind her) follows her inside. She's led into a small dining room (she thinks) and she's instructed to sit down. She slumps against the table, mulling things about in her head a bit before she figures out which question she wants to ask.

"So, why can't you call someone else?" she asks skeptically. She has a feeling she knows why they brought her here. She can't walk away, here. If she gets lost here, they can find her. Not only because she doesn't know where she could possibly go, but also because she sticks out like a sore thumb in Japan. There aren't too many Americans, here. She wants to challenge them on this, but she doesn't.

"We picked you for several reasons. The first and foremost being that you are psychologically perfect for what we need," Koenma explains. "You aren't inhibited by bias. You're strong enough to protect yourself, you put other people before you, you are protective, if you are capable of hate, you do not let it hinder your duties, and, best of all, if you have a job, you take care of it, even if you don't want to."

It sounds more like he's flattering her, she figures- buttering her up. Trying to make her feel better. So, she reacts naturally; she slams her hands onto the table and pushes herself forcefully to her feet. "Fuck off," she growls, getting up and going to an empty room with a closet and a sliding glass door in it. She goes through the sliding glass door and go out to the balcony and she leans against it. Fucking. "Didn't even give me a chance after I found out what I was doing. Those fucking bastards."

A soft hand lands on her shoulder, and she jumps nearly a mile into the air, and she only just stops her instincts from swinging an elbow up into whoever that is. Kurama. His hand smoothly places itself on the elbow that jumped, and the strength in the arm and hand tell her that he was ready to put it down for her.

"I apologize," he says at the same time she says, "Oh, sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?" he asks at the same time she asks, "For what?"

"For startling you," he says at the same time she says, "I almost hit you."

"I noticed that. Why?"

"Instinct. What do you want?"

"Koenma would like you to know that he has arranged for you to start school two months from tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will come by and I'll take you someplace where you can learn healing techniques. He also wants you to know that the healing techniques you'll learn will be much more interesting than one would think, and that you shouldn't worry so much about your family. He will make sure that everything is going well with them. I don't think I understand why you're so upset about it, either. You were unsure about your future at best, and you often dreamed about a life away from home."

"Because I was figuring shit out. I'm sixteen. I'll be seventeen this Thanksgiving. You guys fucked with my life," she answers in the most pissed off tones she's heard come out of her in a long time. "And what about my friends?"

"You didn't have any," he answers. He keeps it cold, and simple, but that doesn't mean the shot didn't hurt. Especially when she remembers he's right.

"That was mean," she sighs, not facing him. He shifts a little.

"I apologize again. I will be here tomorrow at six A.M.. Your jetlag will put you to sleep soon, so you should be up fairly early. Your bed is in the closet, and you have a little food in the kitchen. We tried to match your eating habits, and there is no shellfish in there. Farewell."

And just like that, she's left alone, leaning against her balcony's railing, in a country halfway across the world from where she belongs, thirteen time zones away, with none of your stuff, away from her whole family, away from anyone who even speaks the same language, and away from anything close to familiar. She's terrified, alone, and she still doesn't feel good.

She slumps against the wall for a little while, but not for long- she gets bored too easily- so she goes to investigate the fridge, decides she's not hungry, go to the bedroom closet, pull out the bed, figure it out, lay it on the floor, sit around the room, then go sit outside on the balcony railing, and she wonders if the drop from here to the ground could kill her. She decides it couldn't, and she goes back inside, then she goes back outside and she sees Yuusuke and a brown-haired girl outside on his balcony, and she gets annoyed at them for existing, and she goes back inside again, and she lies down on the bed-thing. She doesn't sleep, and she gets pissed off, and she considers leaving, but she has no money, and she doesn't speak the same language as anyone here, much less can she read it. She knows fewer symbols than words. Plus, she has no ID or anything of the sort.

She waits for about thirty more minutes, and she starts pacing her room, and she growls, and she finally just folds her bedding up and puts her face into it and screams, "FUCK YOU, KOENMA!" into it before she starts to pace again, throwing her arms again. Fucking. Mother. FUCKER.

"Too much of a coward to kill him while you had the chance? He was sitting right across from you," she hears a low sardonic voice ask her from her balcony. She jumps again, and she curses without thinking,

"Aagh, holy shit," she says as she turns to face the source of the voice. It's the short one from before. She tries to remember his name, but she can't.

"It's Hiei," he tells her. "Koenma wanted me to make sure you weren't going to do anything stupid. Rationality wasn't one of the things we marked you down for. Looks like we underestimated you. Not that that's saying much- I doubted women could act with reason at all."

She wonders for a few minutes if he's this way to everyone, or if he's mad at her for something. Then she realizes that he told her his name as if she'd asked for it, even though she hadn't even suggested that she cared about his name at all. That he's speaking English never even occurs to her.

"I take it you're the resident demon?" she barks. "Red eyes? Bad attitude? Mind reader? Why don't you fuck off. Hell, why the hell are you involved in this anyway, aren't they demon hunters?"

"They reward me well enough to keep me employed. Even lifted my sentence entirely. You're being stupid. You've wanted a purpose in your life, and they offer you one, and you don't want it anymore. All your life, you've wanted to be special, and you find out you are, and you're upset to hear it. You've never felt close to anyone, even when you wanted nothing more, and now you're a part of a team that will probably come crawling to you needing help. You've always wanted to be needed, and now you are, and you are angry for it."

She wishes she had something to throw at him, but she doesn't. She throws herself onto the bed-thing and punch the rolled up bit, and she sighs. Somehow, he's killed off all the rage, and now she's just miserable.

"I'm stuck here. I don't know anyone except two boys that don't speak my language and another two that are self-righteous assholes. I can't speak the language here. I can't read their alphabet. I have nowhere to go, even if I could find my way back. I lived in that house for half my life, and now it's completely out of my reach. My family is gone, now, and I am alone in an apartment without friends or a computer. Fuck you. Fuck off."

He makes a grunting noise, and then she doesn't feel his eyes on her anymore.


	5. First

_First..._

Kurama shows up at six A.M., like he said he would. She's been awake long enough to take a long shower, to cook, eat, and clean up breakfast as if she'd not even been there at all. They didn't have much for her. In fact, they put in ingredients for pancakes, and nothing else. Just enough to make half a batch, which is the normal amount for her to eat anyway, and they gave her honey in a jar to eat it with. She guesses they didn't know about the syrup at home, couldn't find it, or knew that honey wouldn't spoil. It did occur to her while she was cooking that they gave her just enough for breakfast because they knew that she wouldn't be here for a couple of months, so they'd been planning this all along.

"Good morning," he says with a slight bow as he comes inside the door. She looks him over, then sits down on her ass and picks her shoes up.

"This is still retarded," she says unhappily. She's not going to fight, though. While she were showering, she thought on what Hiei said last night. She _is_ away from her family, like she's wanted, and these guys don't seem so stupid, and... Well, this is a purpose. Something she has to do.

"Follow me. I'll run you through some basic Japanese, if you would like, while we go there," he offers. He's watching her pull her shoes on, and he's leaning against the door, ready to go. She doesn't look him in the face as she stands, she just gestures "Go on".

"You can run me through Japanese if it makes you feel better," she answers grimly. Just because she feels less shitty doesn't mean that she's not just as annoyed as she was earlier about them tricking her. "How are we getting wherever we're going?"

"Initially, by train. From there, we walk. Just follow me."

The train ride is long and dull. The pair of them take advantage of the opportunity to learn bits of Japanese, the simple, necessary parts. She knew several words, at least fifty or so, but her grammar was horrendous (well, shit, she barely got that stuff in her home language. Which, oddly, makes it easier to learn in Japanese.) On the way up the side of the mountain, he decides to run her through a conversation.

"_Ohayougozaimasu. O-genki desu ka_?" he begins.

"_Genki desu. Anata wa genki desu ka_?" Then she pauses. "I like the abbreviated version better. Just '_genki desu_' is easier."

"_Hai. Arigatougozaimasu. Kurama akki namae desu. Minamino Shuuichi ningen namae desu_."

"Okay, what's the bullshit about the rearranging the sentences? You just said 'Kurama my demon name is.' Oh, wait, that makes sense, now. Sorry, never mind me. Uhh... _Erufib Meruran namae desu_."

"Very good," he says cheerfully. "You are a quick learner. Genkai will appreciate this."

"Who's Genkai?"

"She will be teaching you Healing. And Japanese, if we're lucky. If she can't, then I'll come up after school each day and teach you myself. I'm sure students that do well in English class will be happy to help you as well."

She hears a gruff voice say his name and something else, and she nearly jumps out of her skin.

"Oh, really, Genkai?" Kurama asks in Japanese. ((Sue me, I'm bored with looking this up, it's making my Desert Punk take forever to download.))

"Yeah," she answers. She sees a very short woman with a cigarette in her mouth approaching them, and she can't help but wonder if she's gone insane or something, if she's really seeing her, because... She looks weird, really. Just bizarre, out here on this mountain with the weird traditional clothes and the hat and the cigarette... Kurama talked to her, so she guesses she's real enough. Demons exist, why not freaky old women?

"Koenma" is the only word she catches in her next sentence, but Kurama agrees with whatever it is. She asks what her name is, and she tells her herself, "Meruran."

"Alright."

She rattles in Japanese to her, but she waits until she finishes before she mumbles, _"Hanasunai Nihongo."_

Kurama explains something to her, but she doesn't understand anything he says for a minute. Genkai eventually sighs and leads her up towards wherever she came from.

The house is friggin' huge. She's amazed at the sheer size of it for a little while, but then the amazement goes away, and she looks back to Genkai as she moves up next to her. She rattles in Japanese again, then says, in English, "I'll be teaching you Japanese while you're up here, too, so pay attention. Kurama says you're a quick learner, so don't expect me to go easy on you."

"_Hai, sama_," she says in Japanese.

She speaks in Japanese, and she picks out a few words that she thinks might mean something, and then when she translates herself, she finds that she was wrong, but now she knows what that means... "Alright, now, I'm going to teach you basic combat, first."

"How?"

Japanese, she catches "_Eigo_" and "_learn_" and "_say_". "You're not allowed to talk in English anymore. If you have to say something you can't, then learn to deal with it."

She scowls a little, but she doesn't mind the harshness, yet, though she's got a feeling that she will mind at some point in the next two months. "_Do ka_?" she corrects herself.

_Japanese. Easy. Kill, killing_, something. _Yuusuke_. "The easy way. You're immortal, so I don't have to worry about killing you like I did Yuusuke. So hold still."

She punches her square in the chest. She only just saw enough movement to realize something was happening, and her reflexes takes in a sudden breath, which makes it easier for her attack to knock the wind out of her. The power of the blow itself knocks her sprawling on her back. Her surprise is met only by the level of pain.

She speaks in Japanese, then, after a sigh, says, "Well, you're tougher than you look, even without the immortality." She then crosses her arms and takes another drag off her cigarette. She gets to her feet. "You're also faster than you look, too. But you do it all wrong, you don't think as fast as you move."

"_Arigatou_," she says. She's being sarcastic, but she's not sure how to be sarcastic in another language, yet. She's also trying to breathe, which makes the sarcasm even less detectable.

_Tell. Wrong._ "Can you tell me what you did wrong?"

"The breathing in was a bad idea," she says. Well, she says something like, "_breath not good_", but close enough.

_Very good. _"Very good."

She suddenly doesn't see the old woman anymore, and she steps sideways without thinking about it. She hits the younger female, but this time, she only just brushes her side with her fist. Meruran moves to hit her, too, but she holds yourself back. She doesn't want to hurt her.

_Learner. Fast._ "You are a quick learner," she says, sounding mildly surprised. _You. Help. Works_. "You'd better help that goes along with the energy control, too."

She nods a little, then moves away from Genkai, not wanting to get hit again.

_Why. Didn't. Attack._ _"_Why didn't you hit me?"

Great, speaking again. "_Not want hurt_."

_"You can't hurt me. Next time, try."_

_"Sama."_

* * *

The italic stuff is the stuff not in dominant language. This will switch from Japanese to English, next chapter, be totally forgotten for half the story, then return with a vengeance.

The conversation between Meruran and Kurama is

"Good morning. How are you?"

"I'm alright, how are you?" Then she decides to say, "Fine, you?"

"I'm alright. My demon name is Kurama. My human name is Shuuichi Minamino."

"My name is Meruran Erufib."

Later: "Yes, ma'am." ("Sama" is just like that, or agreeing by saying "ma'am" or "sir", like when you answer your dad calling you by responding with "Sir?")

And I didn't fuck up with the italics in the English words, I just got sick of looking up the shite. And my grammar ain't so hot in Japanese, either. ;


	6. Getting to Know Them

_Getting to Know Them_

The two months drag by so slowly that she feels that she's about to stab the next person she sees, but she did learn a lot about the art of healing. There really is an art to it. And, as it turns out, she learned it well. Not only that, but she also took well to the healing itself. She learned it much faster than she did combat. And on the last day, she says goodbye to Genkai, then starts down the mountain.

Yuusuke's waiting for her at the bottom. He's sitting on a bench with his arms wide over the back of it and his legs crossed ankle-to-knee and he's flipping a toothpick over and over in his mouth. When he sees her, he stands up and waves.

"Do you understand me, now?" he asks first, making sure she speaks Japanese, now.

"Yep," she answers brightly. "You're... Yuusuke, right?"

"Yep, nice to meet you right," he says, sticking his hand out to shake it. She shakes his hand and grins. "So, her name's Erufib Meruran, right? Her family name sucks. I'm calling you by her personal name."

"'kay. Any particular reason you're out here?" she asks, looking him up and down. Jeans, white t-shirt (again). White sneakers. Nothing remarkable about his appearance. Hard to think he went through that old bitch's training. In fact, a harsher version thereof.

"I gotta take you home. Figured she'd want to meet the guys you learned all this for. So you can go to her house, or my house, or wherever you want. I don't care," he offers as he leads Meruran back to the train.

"We can go to my apartment. I don't care," she replies. She suddenly feels his eyes looking over her, and she looks back up at him.

"Hey, you're kinda shaped different," he points out, stepping away from her and walking backwards, making a bit of a show of looking her up and down. She slaps his chest with the back of her hand, and he holds his hand to his chest, looking genuinely hurt and surprised.

"Oww!" he said. "I mean, you coulda punched me, and I wouldn't 'a felt it, but you just slapped me! That hurt!" he whines, rubbing the hurt spot with his hand. He picks up his shirt to look at the clear red handprint on his chest, and he laughs. He looks amused. Oh, good, this'll make adjusting easier.

"Something about learning about easing pain makes it easier to cause pain. Ass. Of course I'm shaped different, I just lost fifty pounds of fat and gained a hundred in muscle," she answers annoyedly. Both of them smile, despite.

"You still have big boobs, though," he points out. She goes to slap him again, but he catches her pale arm, so she swings one leg and kicks him in the shin. Harmless, but painful, yet again. He bounces on one foot, holding his shin. She grins and giggles.

"Owwww!"

"Shut up. Ain't you with that brown-haired girl?"

"Damn, alright. How'd you know about her?" he asks, quirking his brow.

"Saw you with her the day I got here."

"Oh."

He grins stupidly and pats her back. "That's alright, I won't tell if you won't tell."

"Yuusuke, please, stop pestering her. If she's going to be saving our lives, I don't want her to feel the need to let anyone suffer because of something you said," Kurama's voice says from somewhere in front of her. She looks and sees him standing in front of the train station with his arms crossed. He looks really girly.

"Relax, Kurama, Koenma picked her because she doesn't hold grudges," Yuusuke says with a smile. "You don't hold grudges, right?" he asks, looking at Meruran's face for reassurance. She shakes her head, accidentally knocking her hair into her eyes. She runs her hand through her hair and grins a little. Yuusuke's gesturing at her as if to say, "Yeah, you see?"

"That is no reason to be an idiot," says Hhhh...Hiei from somewhere above them. He drops off the roof of the station, and she scratches her head over her ear and ducks her head down a little, using this to sidle back a little. She's been alone in that compound with the old hag for two months, she's not really ready for so much social interaction at once.

"Well, I'm getting a welcoming party. Good thing she let me take a bath last night," she mutters with a dumb smile.

"Didn't Yuusuke inform you? We all agreed to come pick you up so that we could introduce ourselves properly. Kuwabara should be up on the next train. The train after that will take you back home. Would you like to go anywhere specific? Shall we go back to her apartment?"

"Whatever," she says first, settling on her heels and jamming her hands in her pockets. That's Yuusuke, that's. Kurama, who she is supposed to call Shuuichi in public... And she's pretty sure his name's... Dammit, I forgot again. She points at Hiei. "You're Hiei, right?"

He grunts in a "yeah" kinda way. Good enough.

She looks at Kurama, then, and says, "Shuuichi, also called Kurama, right? I'm supposed to call you Minamino-kun or something close, and I'll be going to school with you, right?"

"Yes, yes, and yes, Erufib-san."

"Call me kun if you absolutely have to throw in an honorific. You're Yuusuke," she adds finally, pointing at Yusuke.

"Yep," he agrees, jamming his thumb to his chest.

"Genkai talked about how much training you sucked," she says to Yuusuke with a cheerful smile. Then she moves closer to the tracks to watch as a train comes in.

She hears a strange voice call out Yusuke's family name shortly after it stops, and then an orange-haired guy, Ku-something-ra, runs over to the group. She looks up at him for a second.

"Hey, M. E." He pauses, then leans down to look at her face. "What do you want me to call you?"

"Can you say ' i Merlin /i '?"

He tries for a second, then shakes his head. "Me... Ma... Mir..."

"Fine. Fine. Meruran," she sighs defeatedly. "What's her name?"

"Alright, cool! Oh, uh... My name's Kuwabara Kazuma..."

hr

On the train ride home, the five of them sit and spend a lot of time talking. Well, she and Kurama and Hiei spend a lot of time listening to Kuwabara and Yusuke fight. She's fluent in Japanese, now, (since she learned Healing so quickly, Genkai got to spend more time teaching her Japanese than she expected), so she can communicate easily. Best part is, she speaks the male Japanese (specifically requested by Genkai to teach her that), so she doesn't have to take time to figure out what they're saying.

"We will tell you our stories when we get to her home, but until then, we'll tell you what we can about... Well, what do you want to know about?"

"I don't know. Genkai pretty much taught me everything I needed to know about the country and about being superhuman. She told me about... Pretty much everything. Koenma dropped by last week and told me about what I'm going to be doing. School and such. Apparently, I'm going to Kurama's... Minamino-kun's... school."

"Shuuichi. Minamino-kun, if that's easier."

"Minamino-kun. I'm going to school with Minamino. I live three doors down from you, Yuusuke. If you need me, then I can be reached through you two, or at my house, and it's not like I know any better places to go. If I am out of reach, then Botan or Hiei will be sent to find me. I'll be a tagalong on missions you guys are sent on, and I'll take care of any life-threatening wound you get, or any minor ones, depending on how crippling they are. Since I can't die, there's no concern about me."

"Did Koenma tell you that even if you are immortal, you can be damaged beyond repair?" Kurama says. He asks this like it's important that she knows, but she can't imagine why- she's never been hurt too badly to get up, much less hurt badly enough to stay down. Even his face looks concentrated, and he's looking her in the eyes, something he had yet to do. She guess he's trying to get how important it is that she understands this thoroughly. She fails to see how it could be.

"Yeah, but I don't think that's an easy thing to do."

"It's probably important that you protect herself as well," he says, sitting back, but still staring at her just as intently as before. She looks at him and see the look on his face. It's not exactly as passive as it usually is. Something behind his eyes looks almost... worried. She stares at him for a second, until finally, she realizes that she's staring into a boy's eyes like there's something written behind them, and she turns her head to look out the window. Hiei has been staring out, too- he's sitting across from her. She finally looks over at him.

"Do you have a fascination with looking out windows, or are you claustrophobic?" she asks, leaning down on her knees with her elbows.

He either ignores her or doesn't know she's talking to him, for a minute, until he finally looks up at her and mumbles, "What?"

"Are you claustrophobic, or do you just like looking out windows?" she insists.

"Hn," he answers, putting his elbow on the window and going back to staring out it. She's not sure if she's hurt, or if she's just put out. Yuusuke pats her back.

"Don't worry about him. He's always like that. Even when he does like you, you can't tell."

"Yeah, right. Don't bother with that shorty," Kuwabara says from next to Kurama. "He's just a jerk. Now, if you wanna talk to a real man-- DA-AOW, URAMESHI! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!"

About halfway through his sentence, Yuusuke punched him in the top of his head.

"Will you back off?" Yuusuke demands. "Jeez."

She smiles a little. Cute. She leans against the window and goes back to looking out it as well. She's used to the idea of never being able to go home, but she's still not used to the idea of basically living with these guys on a regular basis and taking care of them. Especially considering how close-knit they are. They're buddies, good friends. she almost feels like she's intruding.

She can see a ghost of a facial expression cross Hiei's face at the same time a whisper floats through her mind, and she sits upright and looks at him. It's already gone. She couldn't even tell that he made a face at all, much less what it was trying to express. So she leans back on her elbow on the window and stares back out the window.

"Is something wrong?" Kurama asks her.

She doesn't answer immediately, not sure how, until she finally says, "no."

"Are you sure? You seem kind of out of it," Kuwabara says, leaning closer to her. She feels his eyes on her. She looks in the reflection in the window and sees that Kurama and Yuusuke are both watching her reflection, too.

"I'm. It's. I'm still out of water, here, you know," she mumbles. She doesn't want them to ask her any more questions. Please, leave me alone, I don't want to answer questions, right now, I'm not in the mood. She closes her eyes and changes her breathing, hoping she'll fall asleep, soon. Not right now, boys. Later.

"Are you homesick?" Kurama asks. She doesn't answer. She pretends to have fallen asleep.

"Hey, Meruran!" Yuusuke calls.

"Leave her alone," Hiei spits. "Have you no respect for the sleeping?"

Ah, thank you, Hiei.

She hears no answer, but the boys all start whispering amongst each other.

"Are you sure she's sleeping?"

There's a pause, and she feels someone touch at her face, and she reflexively swats them away, then allows her arm fall back into her lap.

"Ah. Well, I suppose it makes sense- after two months with Genkai, especially a normal human..."

They only discuss what's ailing her for a few minutes before Kuwabara starts talking about how hot she is, and then Yuusuke says something about Yukina, and they start discussing various things, but the whole time Yuusuke and Kuwabara, and occasionally, Kurama, talk, she feels eyes on her. She's not sure whose, but to check would be to give away the awake-ness and she doesn't want to answer questions.

When the train slows down and eventually stops, a soft hand touches her arm. She was half-asleep (for real, this time), so she's caught off guard by this, and she grabs the wrist of whoever it is, but then she immediately lets go, surprising herself with the motion.

"Sorry," she tells Kurama as she stands up. "Are we leaving?"

"Yes. I'll come by her apartment tomorrow for school. I believe that Koenma ordered a boy's uniform for you so that you would be able to fight, should we be called from school in addition to the fact that he remembered that you have an intense hate for skirts." He smiles at her and turns to lead her off the train.

"Wise," she mumbles. She follows him off the train, and through the city, until he finally leads her to her apartment.

* * *

The keys had been forgotten on the table in her dining area. She goes inside and looks around. Gas stove, she remembers. She knows there's a futon in the bedroom. The bathroom's tiny. She has a living room, a kitchen, and a dining area, which makes this a big apartment.

Small boxes are waiting for her on the floor in her living room. She looks at them curiously (They have her name on them, but they weren't mailed here), then opens them. On top of them is a letter in an envelope addressed for the number on her door. Her mother. She thinks Meruran's in college, apparently, and she ran away that night to get the red eye flight so no one would know so they wouldn't stop her. Oh, is that what that bastard told her?

In the first two of the four boxes, her clothes are folded neatly. She pushes them aside. In the next one, there's a storage drawer set she got for Christmas years and years ago that she keeps a lot of her junk in, and they couldn't mail her portfolio, so they took all the drawings out and put them in the second of the two junk drawers, mixing all of her junk together. In the fourth, there are mostly offerings--two twenty-four packs of sharpies, a few new a-line shirts (Wifebeaters. Or husband beaters, in her case.), and a typewriter with a ream of paper, several liquid ink pens (that she can tell are from her mother because there are several kinds because her mother only remembered the "liquid ink" part and no brand names) and three notebooks. She's not sure if they're all gifts from her mother, or if some are peace offerings from Koenma.

"I'm sorry that we didn't prepare you better for the transfer over here. We weren't sure you would allow it. We know she'd be excited, at first, but you would have second thoughts before too long, and wouldn't come. Would you like help unpacking?" He pauses and looks at the boxes with an almost-concerned look on his face. "Are there only four boxes?"

"You don't have to apologize. That ass with the pacifier stuck in it does, though. Doesn't matter, I'm stuck here anyway, ain't I? Thanks for the attempt, though. Yeah, there are only four boxes, why?"

"I was under the impression that you owned more than this."

"I bet anything Addie took most of my good shit out of my trunk. And my books are useless and would take up space. Plus, I didn't read much anyway. It'll be good for me to pick that back up while I'm here."

"Oh, did you learn to read Japanese, too?" he inquires, looking too interested. She starts kicking the clothes boxes into her room.

"Yeah," she responds as she moves back in and look into the other one. His eyes are on her. Still. She finally looks up at him for the first time since she realized he was in her apartment. He hasn't quit looking at her. She's almost gotten used to the being stared at. She's felt him looking at her pretty much nonstop since she and Yuusuke got within his eyeshot on her way to the train. It's making her uneasy.

"You're staring," she points out.

He sits back on his heels and blinks furiously. She caught him off guard. "Am I?" He was thinking. He smiles a little and ducks his head, biting his thumb. "I'm sorry. Would you like help unpacking?"

"No. It's pretty late in the day, I think I'm gonna put everything up and sleep. Is there food in here?"

"There should be. I believe that Botan was sent shopping for you. I'll be on my way. If you need anything, Yuusuke is down the hall. If you can't reach him, then there should be a purple compact in his room that you can call Botan with."

He gives a little bow, then slips out of the door quicker than she thinks he would have if she hadn't pointed out that he was staring.

She shrugs it off and starts unpacking and making the room her own.


	7. The Swing of Things

_The Swing of Things_

Halfway through the first week, Meruran meets Botan, Keiko, Shizuru, and Yukina when they knock on her door to introduce themselves. (Botan said that she knew about the idea to pick out an Indestructible Healer, but she didn't know Meruran'd been chosen and trained already, and they came as soon as they found out.) About three minutes into the meeting, she had decided that she hates Botan in a friendly way, she really likes Shizuru, and Keiko needs to learn to breathe. Yukina was among the sweetest girls she'd ever met, too.

She gets used to living in Japan. She's even gotten used to taking off her shoes before walking into a house, and not getting into the tub to bathe. And the protocol when dealing with guests, or when she's playing guest to Yuusuke. Customary differences is a good excuse when she doesn't know what she's doing. ("Well, you see, in America, we don't bother with shoes or slippers over shoes and--" And then Atsuko commented drunkenly that she talked like a man, why would she want to do that, and take her fucking shoes off, didn't she just tell her to do that?)

School's easy enough to deal with. She's a grade higher than Kurama, being older than him, but even so, she has no problem adjusting. (Though the test to get in scared the shit out of her, and she nearly failed the math part.) Her classmates don't hate her or anything, either, which makes this place even better than home. They seem rather eager to talk to her, though, asking her all sorts of things about home, and even more things about Shuuichi. Lunch is almost dreaded, and she tries to go to the roof, but the boys up there poke fun at the uniform. She wants to pick a fight, but that'd be unfair to them, and she'd probably hurt them more than she meant to.

* * *

After the first week, though, once she's officially used to everything in the new culture, they decide to introduce her to missions. Yuusuke decides to get her attention to tell her this by giving her a flying headlock.

A flying headlock, by the way, is when someone jumps on her back from high up and wraps his arm around her neck and puts you in a sleeper hold.

She responds to the sudden attack with a cry of surprise, then throwing him over her shoulders. She almost moves to follow it up with a good kick or stomp attack, but she stops herself and smiles down at him as he lays on his back, completely stunned for a second.

"Somehow, even though I can take a fist to the face from someone who can move faster than the eye can see, something about the way you do things is almost disturbingly powerful and surprises the hell out of me."

"Her teacher taught me, so I know her weak spots," she tells him with a proud smile. "Plus, while I was grabbing you, I hit three pressure points along her arm and ribs to immobilize you. Seeing as I was pressed for time, and I couldn't really get the points the way I wanted to because of the fact that you were flying over my head, I think you should only be a little stiff, rather than completely immobile."

"Did she teach you that?"

"Yeah. Healing stuff is really close to, but not quite the same, as fighting stuff. I can tell you how to damage someone, but only because I know how to fix said damage. Plus, it saved me from needing training like you to learn to fight. I can fight with three fingers, rather than my fists."

He smiles a little, then holds his arm up.

"Help me up."

She smells the trick already, and she braces her front foot too far in front of her back one so that he won't be able to pull her down. She drags him to his feet with his attempt to knock her over. It pulls him off balance, and she uses that to knock him onto his back again with a kick at his ankle and a push to his chest. He grabs her hand and nearly takes her down with him, but she slips her hand out of his grip and stands up and keeps walking. She tries to ignore the bubble of pride that almost hurts her chest as she swallows it.

"Is there any particular reason you decided to attack me, Yuusuke?"

"Yeah, actually. You're used to living here, so we're gonna see how well you do against a demon by herself."

The surprise is almost as bad as the fear. She swallows it to join the lump of pride in her chest, then checks to see if his face is sincere. "What, today?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

She pauses for a minute. She knows Hiei's the demon of the group, but he's not even remotely demonic, other than the weird hair and the eye color. Yukina's a demon, too- also red-eyed, but her hair's only strangely colored. Hell, both of them look like normal people that decided to be little weirdoes. She's not sure what to expect, either. Yukina's the nicest person she's ever met, and Hiei's among the coldest- which is funny, considering that the ice demon's kind, and the fire demon's cold. But either way. Let's meet another one, shall we?

"Alright. Now, or later?"

"You got anything you need to drop off at home?"

"No, no homework today."

"Then let's go."

* * *

As she follows Yuusuke through the city, she pays careful attention to her surroundings. She makes notes of what kind of signs are around her so she can find her way back, should she decide that she doesn't want to go home immediately after this. She has to find somewhere she can go when she needs to relax. She makes a mental note to do that later.

"Alright, you ready?" Yuusuke asks her. She's gotten into a little bit more of a run-down part of town, now. She's standing right outside an alley. She smells something gross, and even the ground under her shoes seems uninviting.

"Yeah, I guess."

He leads her into the alley, and she watches his frame change shape as he wills himself a little shorter and stockier. It's like how a lion brushes up his mane. She doesn't stay any closer to him than normal, but she feels herself subconsciously make her bigger. She's not sure if she's doing this physically or just with her energy.

"Can you tell which one of them it is?" he asks her. She's looking around so intently, she barely hears him. Something about this place gives her the creeps. There are a couple of rough-looking women, scantily clad, and there are a few men leaned over, hunched over, and tough-looking. No one here looks like they were dealt a decent hand in life. She closes this out, and she lets her mind clear, and her hand twitches up and she looks up and sees a tall figure on a fire escape a couple of floors up.

"Him?" she asks Yuusuke. He looks up at him, and he smiles.

"Yep. Now, how do you think we should go about arresting him?"

"That's her ground. I'm not a detective."

"Alright, alright. But we gotta make sure you're not a pushover. Just go challenge him to a fight. If he takes you out, I'll take him out and you can take care of herself."

She thinks for a second, then finally decide that going and being polite and asking his mommy if he can come out and play isn't going to do any good. And making a scene wouldn't be too big a deal, here. She's not going to hang out here regularly, so what the hell.

"OI! YOU!" she barks, moving so he can see her and looking right up at him. His head twitches, but that's all she sees before he drops off the fire escape. He tries to land on her to attack, but she's too used to people moving faster than she can see, and she steps back and away from him. She makes sure she's not backing away as much as dodging him.

When he stands up straight, she realizes that he's a lot bigger than her. A _lot_. She feels a grin cross her face, but she knows that she's terrified. It's a strange trait of hers, smiling when she's scared shitless. Laughing, too, but not as often as just grinning like a maniac.

"What?" he asks, pretending he didn't just try to attack you.

"I'm supposed to challenge you to a fight," she says, not letting herself get daunted by some dumb guy that's trying to scare her. "S'ere anything cool I'm supposed to say to do so, or is that good enough?"

He leans close to her and breathes in her face. Smell of stale human is on his breath, but she remains unintimidated. She stares him in the face. His hand shoots for her head, but she blocks that with a small barrier out of one hand. He stands up straight, dwarfing her and Yuusuke, and he twitches his head upward.

"Let's take it somewhere we can stretch our legs," he says in a voice deep enough to shake the earth. It's what she'd imagine God's voice would sound like.

"Alright," she agrees. "The roof of this one," she adds, pointing at the building he'd been sitting on. He nods, then takes off. She follows him. She can see flickers of him moving ahead of her, catching the edges of the fire escape levels and shooting himself upwards until he finally lands on the roof. She and Yuusuke land up there a little after he does, and she moves to a corner opposite him. She hands Yuusuke her glasses, and she ties her hair back. The grin splits her face open, and she can't fight it. Her heart's beating so hard that it's almost painful, and she can feel the blood coursing through her veins, and her lungs are working harder than normal.

She can't see him too well without her glasses, but now they're in the daylight, rather than in the shadow of the alley. He's huge, he's bulky and lean at once, and he has shark's eyes. It's frightening.

"You scared?" he asks her. She only just hears him.

"Shitless, but that's not my real fear. I don't like hurting people, Yuusuke."

Yuusuke opens his mouth, probably to tell her that she doesn't have to go, but no sooner than he gets out the first sound, both she and the demon shoot forward from their respective corners at one another.

On her way over, she finds the happy place. She can't fight on instinct alone- She's too self-preserving when she fights on instinct alone. She has to keep her wits about her enough to face the blows he's going to give her. Genkai taught her this, once she discovered that she fights almost naturally.

His fist traces an arc in the air (which is a bad way to punch, one loses so much power that way) and comes at her fast, but she slides down and between his legs and she catches his ankle in her hand on her way through and swings herself up to kick him in the chest. He grabs her ankle and he picks her up and she uses that to kick him right in the arm. His arm snaps, and he drops her, and she slides away, turning her head to the side so she doesn't directly see the damage she did to him.

He looks more surprised than pained when he gets to face her again. She's leaning down a little, standing wide, and she recognizes that she's standing like a wolf ready to fight. He pulls his arm, putting it back in place, but not healing the bone. It's still weak, it's just not in the way. He can't use it.

"You're pretty good. You knew how to do that. I won't let you get that close again."

He starts at her again, and she doesn't have time to go back at him. He swings a foot at her, but she ducks and weaves under it as his leg passes over her, and she grabs his shirt and pulls herself up to punch him right in the chin, and use the momentum to drag his head up with her fist. She plants her feet in his chest and kicks back to push him down, but he grabs her ankle as she kicks off, and he throws her. She tumbles in the air, and she shoots her arms out and catches the wall of the roof by chance. She doubles herself and braces her feet on the roof, too, and kicks off and runs/crawls until she's farther away from the edge of the roof.

He goes after her again, and he starts to swing his fist. Since he's so much taller than she is, and she's ducked low anyway, crouching on her hands and feet, he's going to have to swing down at her. She stays low and waits for his fist to come down at her. It only just brushes her hair when she pushes herself with her left hand and foot, going sideways almost faster than even she can register. The movement blinds her, but he's off balance from trying to swing down like that. She kicks his feet out from under him, and he falls to his knees. As soon as he touches ground, she's up and on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck from behind. She doesn't even try to hang properly, dangling from her arms alone, hands clasped together under his neck.

Since he's so tall, he can't do anything other than slap at you uselessly, until right before he passes out, he figures out what to do, and he finally swings himself at the ground, throwing himself at the ground and slamming Meruran into it. She feels her whole back pop, and all the air exits her body, and her grip on his neck slacks enough that he can get up and move away. She has to do the same thing, and neither of you moves a second. After a little while, she slowly rises to her feet, acknowledging the ache, and she breathes slowly, trying to suck enough air into her body to get her head to stop being so light.

Yuusuke moves forward. He doesn't think she can handle it, she figures. "Meruran, don't push yourself if you can't take it."

"Hey, this is my fight. Fuck off. I know when to run, and I don't have to, yet. Hold this." She takes off her school jacket, leaving herself in her wifebeater, and she hands it to him. He smiles a little bit, and she shifts her feet until she's comfortable. Then, "You ready?" she asks the demon across the roof. He smiles back at her, and she's not scared, this time. They start at each other again, and he sweeps one hand low to uppercut her, but she knocks it aside and swings her fist up to uppercut his ribs.

The blow stuns him and knocks the air out of him, and he steps back. She doesn't hesitate and she goes for him again, jumping and catching herself on his arm to punch him in the face, and when she lands again, she throws her fist into his chest, and he staggers a last time until he falls back down, and he lays still.

Yuusuke tosses Meruran her jacket, and he goes to the loser and he points his finger down at the demon on the ground and announces, "You're under arrest for human hunting. And murder, I think. Wasn't really paying attention."

Meruran is not paying attention to him after that. Nothing that applies to her. The adrenaline rushing through her veins feels good. She's almost high, and she can still feel the blood in her veins, and the warm air she's breathing deep feels good all the way down.

"Hey, Yuusuke? Did I do well?" she asks after the guy vanishes. She wasn't not paying attention, so she's not sure where he went, but Yuusuke's still here.

"Yep, you did good," he says. He takes the jacket out of her hands and puts it over her shoulders. He looks proud. "Did he get you?"

"No, no, nothing bad. Just when he slammed me on the ground. I'm alright. Hey, I think I know my way home. I know what's around the apartment, anyway. I'm gonna go find a good place to hang out, alright?"

He looks at her questioningly, then shrugs. "F'you want."

She bows to him, then hops down the side of the building, going down a couple floors at a time until she finally gets to ground and she starts walking, sucking on her sore knuckles.


	8. Meeting Hiei

_Meeting Hiei_

It takes her nearly two hours of walking to find a good place to be. The sun's going down, and she's cold enough to put her jacket back on. The cooling air feels good to her adrenaline-heated body, though, and she takes it into her lungs gladly.

The place she finds is a building that is condemned. It's falling apart, and she can smell old stories and spirits rotting around the whole place. She goes inside, but she doesn't find a place small enough to feel safe in, so she gets to the roof and she pick out a corner where she can put her back, and she sits and leans there, and she breathes in the evening air a little deeper than normal, feeling it go all the way down her throat, and in her sinuses and her mouth, and she just feels better, and she allows herself to relax against the wall, and she closes her eyes.

"It's unwise to let your guard down that much," Hiei's cynical voice says. She opens her eyes to see him resting on the small out-building housing the stairs that go down into the building. He's sitting with one leg dangling while the other one's propped up next to him, supporting his elbow. His sword's in that hand, and resting diagonally across his chest. The other arm is holding him up, resting on the ground. "Especially here. It's a good way to get yourself hurt."

"You know, I haven't decided if you're really that much of an ass, or if it's put on," she says with a weak smile. "There's no way someone can be as cold as you, and you think too much for it to be entirely put on."

"Hn," he grunts. "You're a greater fool than I thought. Why would I bother pretending?"

Most of the time, she'd be daunted by the response, but she already has something to counter his attitude with. "You'd bother pretending so they wouldn't think you've gone soft and take advantage of it. So, who is it you feel contempt for? Everyone? Humans? Just the ones of us that don't treat our friends like shit?"

"I don't have friends," he snorts. Ah, she knew he'd say that. It makes her feel all warm and fuzzy inside to be able to use this observation.

"You do so. I've watched you all for a week, and I know that you count them as friends as much as they count you as a friend. You may act like you don't want to be a part of the group, but you stay in the room where they're gathered for as long as you can stand to, you linger as closely as possible, and while you don't contribute to the lame conversation, you do listen. You don't want to be alone either. Now drop the act."

He doesn't say anything for a little bit. She can see him working his jaw, trying to come up with a comeback, trying to find a way to disprove her, but he can't. "You're more observant than you claim to be," he finally concedes. Not to any surprise, he looks real annoyed with this fact.

"Don't get me wrong. Sometimes, I just don't pay attention," she says with a bright smile. "I figured it'd be best if I learned what I could about all of you, though."

"What about you? Do you have friends?" he asks. His tones are so close to mocking that she's not sure if it's a real question or not. She looks at him to see what body language she can pull from him. He wants an answer, she can see that when you see him looking at her, watching her.

"What are you asking?" you finally inquire. You're half-sure that he's asking you if you count the four of them as friends, but you're not positive, and you don't want to answer wrong.

"Do you think we're your friends?"

"You say the word 'friend' weird. Almost like you're not used to saying it. It's like the emphasis normal people put on the word 'die'," she babbles as she thinks it. The back of her mind fights for the right answer to his question.

"Answer me," he barks.

She doesn't want to. She's not sure if it would hurt his feelings if she told him, no, she doesn't count them as her friends, but she doesn't want to take the chance, and she hates lying. But... She doesn't know them well enough. She's spent the most time with Kurama, and she's so freaked out by his constant staring and questions that she doesn't even want him near her anymore. Yuusuke is friendly, but something about him is fairly cold- he's been distracted by something. Exactly what, she's unsure of, but before she got here, something happened to him and he's been thinking hard on it. She hasn't even seen Kuwabara that often, and the only traces she has of Hiei are flickers of black moving out of her peripheral vision, or a semi-hunched figure in windows.

"Is that a 'no'?" he asks.

"You don't talk nearly this much around the others. What makes me so special?" She doesn't feel good, all of a sudden. She's a little angry at him for bringing her down from such a great feeling. The cold air is no longer refreshing, and it's chilling, now. She wants to be back in her apartment, typing on the last thing she started writing. She wanted to throw in a fight like the one she just had, or the feeling of the fight she just had, and now she just wants to write about someone stuck on their own again. "I was feeling good until you showed up," she complains. "I was breathing well, I could see, I felt good, I was warm, and I could even feel my heartbeat. Do you know how long it's been since I've been that alive?"

"Four months and ten days."

"Oh, yeah, that's right. You freaks stalked me."

"It wasn't our choice. You were boring, most of the time. You know why he picked you, don't you?"

"I'm psychologically perfect for it?" she snips, glaring up at him.

"You know what that means?" he presses. He's moved, and she can feel his eyes burning into her, even though she can't even see his eyes anymore. The sun's set completely.

"No, let's hear it," she sneers. Her lips pick up, and she catches herself snarling at him.

"Because you were alone and you knew it. The rest of the idiot humans walk around blind, stupid, ignorant of how close to their bestial beginnings they are, much less to how destructive, and how alone they are. The ones that know they're alone are overwhelmed by it, and they cry themselves to sleep until they finally can't take it anymore and give themselves a little physical pain that makes it all end. There were many pieces that contributed to it. But the biggest one was how alone you were, and you knew it, and you never gave in to it."

She looks up at him. She thinks about his words, and she feels tears begin to edge under her lower eyelids, but she doesn't weep. Tears don't fall. She just looks up at him, and she feels a cold smile spread onto her face as she realizes...

"You know how that is, then, huh? You're scared you're alone, aren't you? You're terrified that your friends are going to abandon you to rot and burn, if it comes down to it. You told me I was picked because of my strength, and because I wouldn't be missed, and I'm wise, but you worded it that way to get under my skin. Don't bring me down just because you want a little company in your misery," she growls darkly.

He stands up. He looks suddenly angry. She can tell that she's struck a nerve. She's right, huh.

"Yeah, I thought so. You seem pretty close to Kurama. Maybe he can pet your hair and make you feel better," she continues growling. She stands up and faces him. He glares down at her. "Guess you'd turn to the girly one to play momma for you, even if it is completely lost on you."

"Shut up," he snarls. Different nerve. His whole body's tensed, now, and she can feel how murderous he's gotten.

"Why the hell should I? Did I strike a nerve? Is the big bad Hiei going to cry, now, just because the little human bitch decided to return the favor?"

Her arm moves, and the sword he tried to stab her shoulder with (thank gods the blade was pointed down) slides against her arm, cutting a little, but sliding into the wall harmlessly, where it sticks. She steps forward and thrusts her elbow upwards into his chin. He wasn't expecting that, and he steps back. He forgets to take his sword with him, and she kicks him to knock him farther away from it. He steps back.

"So, you can fight, now, can you? Are you not just going sit back and let the blows come to you?"

"What the fuck did I do to you?" she snaps. A knot of sadness has formed in her heart, and she feels the blood struggling to get around it.

He launches himself at her, but it's too dark for her to see it. She steps out of herself and let her body take over defending itself. She blocks the attack with her crossed arms, and grabs his head and head butts him. He steps back, clutching his forehead. The cloth over his forehead didn't provide much protection, and he cries out in pain. Blood leaks from under the white band, and he pulls it off quickly, and he moves away and kneels, turning sideways from you and clutching at his forehead. His face contorts in pain, and she can see that she hurt him more than she meant to.

She's immediately sorry, and she runs over to him, and she kneels next to him. He throws his hand out and strikes her face, but he's just lashing out like a hurt three-year-old, and he's not aiming to hurt her anymore.

"Well, if you don't let me _see_ it, I can't _heal_ it, Hiei!" she objects. He grunts a little, and groans, then pushes her back before he faces her. She can see the eye in his forehead, and how badly it's bleeding. It's half-closed, too, and the wound to it seems to hurt a lot more than she'd expect it to. This isn't a typical black eye.

"Sorry, Hiei," she says quietly. She really is. The rage she felt has already been pushed over by guilt, and she really just wants to heal it and let him run like she knows he wants to.

"Shut up," he spits. "You're not sorry."

"Yeah, I am, now, come here so I can fix it."

"Why the hell should I trust you if you did it in the first place?"

"Because I didn't mean to. If I'd known you had an _eye_ under that headband, I wouldn't have even thought about head butting you. Now, come here."

He doesn't come to her, but she edges closer, and he doesn't lash out anymore.

She gets close enough to hold her hand over his eye, and she heals it. The green energy she's so used to seeing come out of her fingertips surrounds his third eye and sinks into it, until, finally, it stops bleeding and opens all the way. She holds it a little longer, then moves back and looks at his face. His expression has faded from one of pain to emptiness. She thinks he's thinking. So she moves back to her original position slumped against the wall.

"He picked me because I had nothing holding me there. I was strong enough to deal with any emotional pain by myself. He picked me because I wouldn't let my feelings get in the way of my work. He picked me because he knew that even if you guys hated me, and I hated you, I would heal you anyway. He picked me because of the empathy, he picked me because I can't die, and he picked me because I care about everyone, even if I hate them. And he picked me because he knew that I could deal with it," she says. She's not sure if it's true, but she doesn't want Hiei trying to hurt her again, so she's trying to give herself something to fall back on.

"Human," Hiei spits. The way he says it, he might as well have called her something awful. She looks at him, discerning his expression in what moonlight there is. If looks could have killed, this would have maimed, raped, and tortured her before burning her to death.

"Asshole," she answers. She doesn't sound as hateful, but she means this in the worst way possible. She finally takes his sword out of the wall and throws it at him. She's watching herself have a temper fit, but she doesn't bother stopping herself. "Wanna find out if I'm immortal? I know you're mad at me. You could have said 'you' the same way as you said 'human' and it would still just be the most awful thing you could say. Come on. I wanna test out this immortal thing, too."

She hears footsteps below her, and so does Hiei. Both of them drop into fighting stances and watch the door. And then she sees a little bit of red as Kurama comes closer to the door. Hiei's gone in the blink of an eye, and she collapses back into her spot. She no longer cares about anything that's happened in the last little while. She's tired, now, and she wants to go to bed.

"Meruran," Kurama says, sounding relieved. "Yuusuke said that you decided to go for a walk. Perhaps you should get one of us to take you until you get your bearings around here?"

She laughs quietly. "Oh, come on. How do you expect me to get my bearings if I don't explore?" she teases airily.

"Did you get that in your fight?" Kurama asks, looking at the cut on her arm. She forgot about that. Oops. She shakes her head, then picks her arm up to examine it. It's not bleeding anymore, but it would be if she were normal. Kurama'd know that it's too fresh to have gotten in the fight. She decides to lie and not get Hiei in trouble. (Won't lie to spare feelings, but will lie to spare trouble on someone else's behalves.)

"No, I got that while was trying to find a good place to be up here, and I fell and landed on some metal or something. It's alright, I got tetanus shot a couple months before I got here."

He nods, but she's thinking he knew she was lying. He doesn't keep asking, though. He takes her hand in his and he pulls her on towards the stairs. She pulls her hand out of his and follows him down, and he starts taking her back to her apartment. A whisper in her mind flits through, but the only thing she recognizes is the low cynism that is Hiei's voice.

Ja matte ne. Maybe we'll get to know each other a better way than trying to kill one another? she offers mentally. She hears a grunt and something that's supposed to be a laugh, and she smirks as she continues following Kurama.


	9. Ready?

Hello, once again, adoring fans. The two of you that there are on this story. If there are more of you, of course, I honestly think you should review much more often than you do. Because, at least, surely to any and all gods, I've fucked up at least once, grammatically--Left in a "you" or forgot to add whatever "s" on whatever verb after a "she".

Anyway. Good to see you all again, and I wanted to say hello to. Hell Goddess, was it? Goddess of Hell? For some reason, I can't remember what the hell your name is.

I also wanted to apologize for how short this one (and the other) are, this time around. I'll update again... Later. If I remember. I'm very easily distracted.

-R.F.

* * *

_Ready?_

Saturday is the seventeenth. It's probably a little before one. She's not real sure, because she doesn't have a clock in here. But she hears a knock on the door, and she sits up. "Yeah, come in, but don't come into my room."

"Meruran?" a woman's strangely accented voice asks. "Were you in bed?"

"Yeah, and I still am, or was." Meruran gets out of her bed and pulls her clothes on and go to the living room. "What do you want?"

"There's a mission we need you to go on," she says. She sounds a little distracted. "We told Yuusuke about him, and he's not very happy, so he might be a little more self-destructive than normal, especially if the bad guy is stronger than him."

"Fine, fine. Where're we going?"

"Oh, you can follow Yuusuke if you run quickly enough- he should only be down the street at best."

Meruran nods and takes off running. Botan leads the way, running ahead of her until she can see Yuusuke and can start running at her real speed. He's stalking ahead, and she can see how tight his jaw is when she gets up close to him.

"Yuusuke, are you alright?" Meruran asks. He looks over at her and something in his face gets weird, but he's still sort of got this very severe look on his face.

"Oh, yeah, forgot about you," he says. He's not talking to her. His jaw barely moves, for that matter. The aura she's picking up off him feels cold and sick, and she feels chills trace up her arms.

"Something's got the Detective in a mood," Hiei teases as he drops from a lightpost or a foot behind the two of them. "What've they done? Have they been drinking the blood of children? Force feeding hearts of lovers to one another?"

"Shut up, Hiei."

Hey, he does do that to everyone, she thinks. Then she feels eyes on her back and she looks to see Kurama trotting to catch up.

"Ah, Kurama," Hiei says. "Perhaps you can tell us why the Detective is so unhappy?"

"The demons we're being sent to fight have been working to create a half-blood army. We won't have to play rescuer, but we will have to take care of the demons."

"Alright. Let's go," Meruran answers, shrugging.

"Meruran, perhaps you should go back home," Kurama suggests.

She's daunted for a second. She was so excited to get a chance to do her real job, she didn't even think to care about what might become of her. So she grins at Kurama. "No way," she answers. "What if this guy's stronger than you, it's better if I go along. I can take care of myself long enough to blind and flee. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? I could kick their asses." There's no noise for a second while Kurama chews on his words, and Kuwabara suddenly catches up with all of them.

"HEY! YOU WEREN'T GONNA LEAVE ME BEHIND, WERE YOU?" he shrieks

"Yeah, we were," Yuusuke says, suddenly lightening up a little. He turns around and grins a little and she feels better to see that glum look go away.

He looks at everyone, then at Yuusuke again. "Hey, where are all of you going?"

"To battle," the newest addition sings. Yuusuke stops at a train station, and they all sit and wait.

Yuusuke tells all of them about the bad guys. Apparently, they've taken over an island and raped all the female inhabitants old enough to bear children and killed everyone else. They're stronger than Yuusuke, too, and from what intelligence Koenma has gathered, it will take all of you to hurt the main one. There are two demons. They have the ability to shadowcrawl, which means that they can sink into the ground in a shadow and become shadows themselves. They can only leave or enter the ground at points where shadows are, but that still makes them dangerous.

"One of them is like you," Yuusuke says after a minute. He looks a little pissed off at something, she thinks, but then he turns to look at her and she can see it's more like concern. "He can't die unless you kill him."

"I can't kill anyone, Yuusuke," she tells him softly, shaking her head. "I can hardly bring myself to hurt anyone. I won't be able to kill. I couldn't even look at that guy whose arm I broke."

The concerned face gets a little tenser. "Yeah, I know. I'll try to keep it so you won't have to. But we won't be able to hurt him bad enough that he'll stay down for long, especially if he knows it. You guys are real hard to hurt. You'll have to do it."

She looks at him. She thinks about when she broke that first demon's arm, and how she felt the phantom ache in her own arm. She thinks about hurting someone, and she winces, even while she's just imagining it. Her muscles tense a little and tighten and shiver. Dammit.

"This is the train," Yuusuke says, getting up and getting on the train. "Come on."

One by one, they follow him, and the whole way there, she wonders if she'll be able to fight again.


	10. First Try

_First Try_

The first step they take on the island sets off an alarm. She nearly jumps a mile into the air, and Kuwabara nearly screams in surprise and fear.

"Jumpy?" Hiei teases, shooting her a cocky look.

"You're close enough to my chest to hear my heart, why don't you tell me?" she answers with a snide smile, leaning down to his level and glaring. She wouldn't have taken the shot at him if her weren't in such a tart mood with him. Little shit.

"Sorry," she says after she stands back upright. "I needed something to make me feel better."

He glares up at her, but then she sees a couple of figures emerge from a set of mountains, and she turns to face them.

She's kind of surprised at her first thought, which is, "Shouldn't they be taller?"

The second one isn't really a thought as much as it is a feeling, and it inspires a shudder. She feels alone and weak and _cold_ and something about her wants her to move behind one of the boys and cry.

"Why are you still here?" one of the figures demands. It's the one on the right, who is a little taller than the other and has a gentlemanly if not girly look about him. His face is rounded and feminine, his eyes are round and dull, his dull brown hair is slicked back, and his clothes are clean and hanging straight.

The second one is much more intimidating in appearance, and he has an apish look to him, longer than natural arms, and clad in black, disheveled clothes. He's got a manic grin on his face, and he's looking right at her. She doesn't pick as much power off him as she does the first one, but the way he's looking at her is almost hungry, and she's scared by it.

For some reason, probably to make her stomach stop turning over and over for the fear in her, she decides to go ahead and voice her first thought. "Shouldn't you be taller?"

Now that he's closer to her, she can see that he's only a little taller than her, not even an inch taller. Yuusuke's taller than him. The other one matches her height almost perfectly; or he would, at least, if he would stand up straight.

The more intelligent/sane one looks rather annoyed at Meruran, and he makes a disdainful face before he shifts his gaze to Yuusuke. She's started watching the second one, and she can see that Hiei is, too.

"Size doesn't matter, as you should well know. Why are you still here?"

"We're not exactly your typical humans," Yuusuke says, stepping forward. "And I gotta bone to pick with you."

The first one smiles and laughs, sending chills down her spine. God, she thought that was a figure of speech, but the way he laughs, no feeling like that, it scares her.

"I see Spirit World has caught up with me!" he says delightedly. "Perhaps you know who I am? In case you do not, I shall introduce myself."

He gives a low, mocking bow, and he stands up and gestures dramatically at himself.

"I am Anzu. And this gentleman to my left," he says, gesturing just as dramatically with open hands to the second man there, "is my dear twin brother Touka."

"I know who you are," Yuusuke says, stepping farther up. She and the others move back, and she's waiting for a fight to break out. "I know who you are, what you've done, and why you're doing it. And they told me to stop you. I'm gonna be honest and say I would have done it anyway."

Anzu laughs and puts his hand through his hair, then moves, suddenly. The gentlemanly look goes away, and he suddenly looks fierce and angry. He goes after Yuusuke so fiercely that she winces.

The fight goes for a few seconds when she feels eyes on her neck and reflexively ducks and sweeps her feet back and behind her, knocking the legs of the one behind her out from under him. Touka sinks his knife into her hip before he vanishes back into the ground. She cries out and half-run out of the shade before she pulls the knife out.

"Meruran?" Kurama asks quietly. She looks and sees Touka coming up out of the ground and creeping up behind Kurama. Shadowcrawling, she remembers. She grabs Kurama's jacket and pulls him forward and out of the shadow, and she knocks Touka back by heel-thrusting his chest. Hiei and Kuwabara joins her outside the shadow, and she looks at her knife wound. Not even bleeding that badly. Just painful.

"Make sure your shadow's not connected to any other shadows," she says as she reaches into a pocket and patch the hole in her skin with a few gauze pads and some tape before she moves her attention back to Yuusuke.

As she looks over, Yuusuke gets punched in the chin and flies toward her. The other boys move out of the way, but she's not fast enough, and she only just catches his head and shoulders and braces her feet as she begins to slide. He puts his feet down, after a second, and kicks forward to run at Anzu again.

"This is really interesting," she says, watching Yuusuke's fight. "How many people can say they've been hit with a flying Yuusuke?"

"Not many," Kurama says with a smile. "I am worried, though. Anzu is better than he is, and Touka has an unfair advantage- he cheats."

Hiei makes a grunting sound, and she hears the clash of blades. Touka tried to sneak up on Hiei, and this time, it didn't work. Hiei throws Touka into the light, and from there, the fight goes too quickly for her eyes to follow.

"Touka's as fast as Hiei is," she says, watching. "What are we supposed to do?"

"Most of the time, we sit and wait to see what's going to happen. I think we're going to have to get involved in a few minutes. I really think we should retreat, but I doubt Yuusuke and Hiei would allow it, much less Touka and Anzu."

"Should we try to make an agreement?" she asks Kurama. He shakes his head.

"They would not so easily give up the upper hand. I think-"

"INCOMING!" yelps Kuwabara, ducking.

She doesn't get to find out exactly what Kurama thinks because a flying Yuusuke hits her again. This time, she's not expecting it at all, and both of them go flying, and she hits the ground and slides a little. Yuusuke slides to a halt a little away from her, and she jumps up and gets to him and pulls him out of the shadow of the fucking tree, and she leans close to him, pressing a series of points in his neck and next to his ear that wakes him up, and he swats at her hand.

"What the-- Meruran!"

No sooner than he gets her name out, she feels a hand close around the back of her neck and dig into it painfully. Her feet leave the ground, too. His long nails dig into the skin of her neck, and she feels one of them sting as it breaks flesh. He moves his arm to throw her, but she grabs his wrist and when he tries, she keeps her grip on him and she lands right next to him when she releases his wrist. She starts to go at him, but Touka grabs her arms and holds her back.

Touka starts to move her, but then whatever he's going to do doesn't work as she pulls free and runs a few feet away and turns to face both of them in front of Yuusuke. She spots Hiei kneeling over by Kurama, who is tending his wound. She stares hard at Touka, and he's smiling morbidly at her.

"Niisan, can I kill her?" he asks. His voice is a high, buzzing sound, dripping with murderous intent. She moves back.

"It would be best if you did not. She would be a good asset."

Kurama and Kuwabara both move up behind her, and Yuusuke clambers over. She, without thinking, dodges behind Kuwabara and over to Hiei. He seems put out at the wound, and he's bleeding pretty badly, but she doesn't get a chance to look any better. She's not real sure what happens, but suddenly, it's dark, and then there's a sharp pain in her head, then a huge impact on her whole body, and it all goes darker than before.


	11. Proving Your Worth

_Proving Your Worth_

"Meruran, please wake up," a voice begs. "You can't be dead, come on, wake up!"

The hell is that noise. Someone shut them up. Ow. I'm. Tired...

Then she feels a sharp impact on her ribs. She coughs, and she sits up almost instantly and look around. It's dark in here.

"What... Happened?" she asks slowly, looking around. She can't see too well, until someone turns on a bright light and then she's blinded for a second. Then she can see.

"Oh, god," she hears her mouth say while she's still too stunned to say anything of her own accord.

"Kurama got hurt pretty bad," Kuwabara mumbles. The light makes the blood on the ground shine with its dark sheen, and she realizes how much of it's everywhere. He's lying on the ground, breathing slowly, holding his stomach closed. She can see where the knife dragged across for nearly the whole of his abdomen. There's a little blood over his chin, and he's looking over at her.

"Ah, you're awake," Kurama says quietly. "We were afraid you weren't going to wake up," he grunts as she crawls over to him and leans close to look it over. The light is a sword-shaped light in Kuwabara's hand, and it's bright orange, but it's good enough. She picks Kurama's shirt up and she moves him a little bit. He looks up at her. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, man, sorry for making you wait," she says. She's got a headache, but she keeps trying to focus, anyway.

She picks up her pants leg and digs into a pouch Botan gave her, and she pulls out the curved suture needle and thread, and the thread the needle. There's a small injection she can give for pain, but it's rather strong, and it takes a minute, and she has to decide if she needs it. The bleeding's slowed considerably. He can wait on the stitches. So she goes ahead and pushes the needle into the flesh in places across where the wound is. He hisses a little.

"Hey, man, sorry about that, but it's better than what the stitches are gonna feel like without it," she says with a semi-cheerful smile. Kuwabara squeaks a little.

"'Stitches'?! Why do you have to give him stitches? Can't you just heal him?"

"I don't have the power to heal something this deep and wide. The stitches are to close the flesh, the healing's going farther down. Relax, or you'll get him excited, and I'll have to go before the painkiller kicks in."

She waits a minute, then start poking the skin in Kurama's abdomen with the needle. He doesn't move, or acknowledge it at all. She is satisfied with that, and she starts working the needle into and through his skin. The boys around her are completely silent, and she's only vaguely aware of how badly her fingers are shaking. The blood's making it hard to hold the needle, until it gets sticky. She has to screw one eye shut when her own blood from an unknown wound leaks into it. Before she's even aware of it, she gets all the way to the other side. That should stop the bleeding for the most part. But she's still not done.

"Oh, wow," she hears Kuwabara say as she sits back and puts the needle between her lips for safe keeping.

Yuusuke starts to ask her how she did that, but Hiei barks, "Silence, fool, she's not done."

She puts her hands to the slit in Kurama's belly and start to heal the inner damage. She has to focus a little harder than she did on Hiei's eye. That could heal itself, it just needed the energy. This one has to be told what to do, and she has to pick out what level needs to be healed. She pushes it deep into the gash and wait a minute before sliding on across, filling in the wound until it's just a flesh wound in his belly. She stops there, because she knows that he's not the only one hurt. She pulls the needle out of her lips and licks her fingers absentmindedly. The coppery taste fills her mouth, and she spits and the boys laugh quietly to themselves. She puts the needle into its little zip-bag and put it back in her kit.

Yuusuke starts to talk again, but she tunes him out. She's making sure Kurama's alive, and she puts her ear to his mouth to listen for air. The little hairs twitch a little as his breath pushes them, and she smiles a little.

As she stands and turns around, both Yuusuke and Kuwabara scramble back.

"Waaah, don't get near me!" Kuwabara cries. "I don't need stitches! I hate needles!"

"I won't give them to someone who doesn't need them," she says. She's only half-aware of it, but she's guessing she's tired- Her body is weaker, she feels like she's swimming, and her voice is breathier than normal.

Yuusuke is the first one to sit still, so she moves for him, first. Yuusuke's got a knock on the head over his left eyebrow, so she kneels next to him and heals it with a little energy. Kuwabara's basically unharmed, other than basic battery given to him from the fall down here, so she doesn't bother healing him- not that he lets her close enough to do so anyway- and Hiei's got that gash in his side. He, very reluctantly, removes his cloak and lets her heal that closed. He's a demon, so she only has to give it a little push, rather than real healing.

"You've got a hole in your forehead. You got it in the fall down here," Hiei informs her while she gauzes over the gash.

"It'll close after it's done bleeding- just superficial blood," she says as she sits up and wipes the blood away with the back of her hand, then lick the back of her hand and continue trying to clean it.

"Just so you know, Me'ran, that was really cool," Yuusuke says, smiling in a sort of weak way.

"'Me'ran'?" you echo. "Nickname?"

"Well, your real name's a mouthful. To hell with it. Besides, that sounds closer to your name in English, anyway."

She nods and she stands up to look around, but no sooner than she manages to get to her feet, the top of her head feels like it's going to float away, and she suddenly realizes she's falling down. Someone catches her, but she's only just aware of it.

* * *

She wakes up again with her head in someone's lap, and she notices a resting hand on her shoulder. She opens her eyes, and she starts trying to move.

"Aaagh. Damn," she groans, putting her hand down and pushing herself upright. "My head hurts."

"It probably hurt last time you woke up, but you weren't paying attention," Hiei says. She looks around and marvels at where she is for a second before it becomes clear that she's in a tunnel underground. She noticed that last time, she remembers, but she was distracted.

"So, what happened? How'd we get down here?" she asks, looking at each boy in turn for an answer.

"Not real sure. It's almost like I forgot," Yuusuke says as he rubs the back of his head. "I think they knocked us into a hole."

"Alright," she says. "Why are we down here?"

"Because I can think of nowhere else I'd rather have you." Anzu's voice sounds loudly, and all of them jump and look for him, but none of you can see him. "We're giving you three days to get better. You were being very difficult, earlier, and I am under the impression that you're not going to die easily. Plus, she won't die, but you're all protective of her. And she's just as stubborn about not letting you all die. So, we put you down so we could work out an agreement.

"We will lead you out of here in three days. What you choose to do with those three days is up to you. We will not attack you, and you will not be able to find your way out of here on your own. In return for these three days to strengthen yourself, we are going to request that your healer ignore her duties as a healer. She can fight if she wants, but if you are wounded, you have to stay wounded."

"What?" Kuwabara asks dumbly.

"He said we're down here for three days. Next time we fight, I'm not allowed to heal you guys," Me'ran answers.

"What?" Yuusuke demands angrily.

"If you refuse, then we'll take her now and let you rot here. We're being fair."

The boys look between each other, and she waits to see if she's going to be attacked by Touka. She hasn't seen him, yet, but she doesn't feel eyes, yet, either, so she feels that they're alright. And then all of them jump when Anzu appears amongst the five of you, sliding out of the ground, looking right at Me'ran.

"You rescued your little friend, didn't you?" he asks after he looks her over. "And yet you're still wounded?" He seems to think it's amusing. He moves close to the human girl, and she can literally feel all four boys tense along with her. She stands up to face him face to face, and she lets herself seem at ease.

"I never did learn to heal myself," she says with a weak smile. "We've got three days. In three days, I swear off Healing the boys until after one of you two loses a fight. For that, you guys leave us alone for three days."

"Agreed."

Anzu holds his hand out to hers, and she shakes it firmly. He tries to pull her forward, but she braces her feet, and all four boys twitch until he lets go and vanishes.

"So, have a nice nap?" Yuusuke asks from somewhere in front of her.

"How long did I sleep?" she asks, blinking blearily at him and rocking onto her heels.

"An hour," Kurama says from behind her. He was the one that had his lap under her head while she slept, and his hand on her shoulder, she realizes. She doesn't let them know she thought anything of it. She's not used to such contact. He continues talking, not knowing her thoughts. "I'm not surprised. That was extensive Healing for someone with no practice."

"Did it go right? Does it hurt?" she asks, not sure what to do now that he's recovering. She does have some painkillers in her little pouch, but not much. She's suddenly worried about having messed up or something, but he seems well enough.

"It's fine," he confirms with a smile. "You did excellently."

"That's good news," she says. "Has anyone looked around? The rocks here are smooth, so there's probably water not too far from here."

"Huh?"

"I have been asleep," Kurama says. "I don't think that occurred to the others."

She nods and gets up and walks for a few steps, then gets dizzy again. "Whoa."

"Don't push yourself."

"Oh, come on, it was just a little bit of a nap. I've gotta learn to do more than that."

Hiei seems to think this is pleasing, but the only smile he gets out is still cynical and sardonic. She starts walking again.


	12. Wasting Time

_Wasting Time_

She's found a room with sunlight. It's about fifty paces from the lowest cavern with a freezing cold lake in it, and the room itself is twenty feet around with a fifty foot ceiling. There's no way to climb up to the hole in the ceiling- all five of them have tried.

It's still the first day. It's still daylight, which means that fewer than six hours have passed, and all of them are bored and tense and in bad moods. Kurama's been sitting Indian-style with his thumb in his mouth for however long it's been. Yuusuke gets squirmy every now and again and paces off and comes back after a little while, then leaves again, then comes back and swears and leaves again. Hiei's been quiet, but squirmy, as Me'ran's been, and Kuwabara has been very loud, but only for little bits at a time, not knowing what else to do until she finally just chucks him into the water, which is apparently freezing.

"Alright, fuck this. Hiei, come on, let's fight," Yuusuke says as he storms back into the room. Hiei looks at him and quirks an eyebrow.

"Why do you want to fight?"

"I wanna do SOMETHING, and I'd feel better fighting, you know?"

Me'ran can't help but smile a little at the pure maleness of that statement.

"And if one of us is hurt?"

"Then we get the Healer to fix us."

"The Healer," Hiei points out, sounding colder than normal, "is as good as out of commission. She can hardly move without falling down again."

"She's fine, Hiei," she insists (yes, referring to herself in third person.). "She can take care of you. It'll do her good to pass the time by sleeping, anyway."

Hiei looks at Yuusuke, and Yuusuke at Hiei, and she sees both of them smirk/smile, and they go at each other like dogs fighting over the same bitch.

They fight for ages. She lies down and tries to nap, but as soon as she gets close, either Hiei or Yuusuke'll bounce off the wall near her, and she'll feel the pressure of their energies begin to attack her.

"Do you MIND?!" she finally shrieks at them. They ignore her.

It goes on forever and ever and ever. She finally gets annoyed and goes to the lake to wipe the remaining blood off her forehead and her face and her hands, and she stays there until she hears Kuwabara call, "ME'RAN!"

She runs back to the boys and sees that Hiei and Yuusuke are both injured. Neither is badly hurt, but Hiei's bleeding at spots on his arms and his chest, and Yuusuke's face is pretty lumped up, along with a broken elbow and a disjointed shoulder.

"Wow," she mumbles as she goes to Yuusuke, first. "Hey, brace yourself," she tells him half a second before she shoves his elbow back into place. He cries out in pain, but she heals it, and he stops. Then she puts his shoulder back in place with a simple pulling motion. Hiei's healed easily with butterflies from her pouch and two fingers' worth of healing powers.

"That's real cool, Me'ran," Yuusuke says before he grins a little. "You wanna try fighting me?"

"What?" she chokes out, looking up at him and feeling her eyes grow. His grin is the kindest form of malicious she's ever seen.

"Come on, I wanna see what you fight like."

She hesitates, before she decides. "Sure." Then she sort of sees Yuusuke move.

She realizes she's backsliding, but that's the first thing she registers. Then it starts to hurt, and she feels a big impact on her back and shoulders that makes it hard to move for a second, but she immediately gets back to her feet, before she stands and leans on her knees. Her back feels like a huge bruise, and her shoulders burn.

"Ow," she says after she stands back up. She touches the spot between her breasts that has only just begun to hurt. No blood, but it is hard to breathe, and she aches.

"Wow, you really are indestructible," Yuusuke says, looking almost excited.

"You've been waiting to test that out, haven't you?" she hacks, leaning down and breathing deep.

"Yeah, sorry. I'll go easier on you, now."

This time, he stands back, and waits a second until she recovers from the first blow. As she stands up, he asks, "Are you ready?"

"Yeah," she says, nodding and standing upright.

He runs at her at a speed that she can actually see, but she's still only just fast enough to realize she's about to get hit. Instantly, her arms cross in front of her, and his fist connects with her forearms. She slides backwards, much like when he was thrown into her, earlier, but he's running with her, not letting off the pressure. So she does the first thing that occurs to her, which is to put her feet onto his chest and kick off. He stops running and stumbles back, so she does a back somersault and plants her feet, then slides back on her feet, putting one hand down. Then, suddenly, he's next to her again. She sweeps her feet at his ankles, and then moves away. He almost falls, catching himself on his hands and flipping over to land on his feet. He starts going at her again, but she runs away from where he is. He gives chase, but he's faster than her, so she skids to a halt and sends a foot up to kick him in the face. He staggers back.

"Pretty good," he says. "Your power's low, but you do pretty good in a fight, unless you stop moving."

She nods, then moves back again, and then slides on the ground again, kneeling, when he kicks her in the side. She braces one leg out behind her, and curls the other one close to her, and puts her hand back down. He appears next to her again, but she lies flat to avoid his foot, then scrambles out of the way and stands back up, then rushes at him and punches him in the ribs. He doesn't seem affected, so you do it again in a different spot. He grunts, this time, and falls back, and then swings a punch at her. She ducks, and then steps back again.

"You're pretty fast," he says.

"Thanks," she answers, chewing on a bit of her lip that is in the process of coming off. An imaginary truce passes between them, and she moves a bit farther away, and she looks over herself to make sure there aren't any surprise bruises.

After that, Yuusuke seems to be feeling better, and so does Hiei, and so does she, even if she can't stop yawning. The sky in the light overhead finally starts turning pink. The light in the cave will be gone completely, soon.

"I spy with my little eye..." Me'ran yawns. "Something that is pink."

"There's nothing pink in here," Yuusuke reports dejectedly.

"Kurama's socks?" Kuwabara asks with a grin.

"My socks are not pink," Kurama objects. He looks sour, and he crosses his arms.

"They look it!"

"Be that as it may, they are not pink."

"They are, too, lookit 'em!"

They get into an argument over whether or not Kurama's socks really are pink, or if it's just the light. They fight about this until it nearly comes to blows.

Hiei suddenly makes a derisive sound. "The sky," he announces.

"Yep. Your turn," she tells Hiei.

He crosses his arms and gives her a half-glare. "I'm not playing."

"Then you shouldn't have guessed. Come up with something obvious."

"I'm not playing," he insists.

"Come on, Hiei, it's not like it's going to kill you," Yuusuke groans.

"Yeah, Hiei, it'll pass the time," Kuwabara adds quietly.

"You shouldn't have guessed if you didn't wanna play!" Me'ran squeaks indignantly.

"I'm not playing," he says more vehemently, giving her a glare that she thinks would kill her if she was less hardy. Yuusuke grins. She's not sure what he's about to do, but then Hiei is wrapped into a headlock with Yuusuke's forearm pressed to his neck, and he's picked up off the ground, kicking and twisting.

"LET GO OF ME!" he shouts. It's weird to hear Hiei shout, she thinks for a second, and she wonders, hey, maybe he's got one vulnerability normal people have besides emotional bullshit, hmmm?

"Me'ran, you wanna get any licks in?" Yuusuke asks her. She grins.

"I'm not going to hit him while you're holding him still, but keep holding him anyway, I wanna check something out."

Hiei's arm goes for his sword, but she catches his arm in one hand and uses the other's fingers to dig into his ribs. His mouth twists, and he writhes even more, and kicks at her, but she blocks his leg with the upper part of the arm she's holding his hand still with, and she steps up closer to keep herself safe.

Something like a laugh falls out of Hiei's mouth, amongst a few death threats, and then more laughter. "Hahaha-- stop it! I'll kill you! I'll kill both of you! Hahahahaha, stop!"

She cackles like a maniac and jump back and grin. Yuusuke lets him go, and jumps back as quickly as her. Hiei gets his sword out, now that she's not holding him still, and he starts to run at her, but she flees down the tunnels she's grown familiar with. He takes a little time to go after Yuusuke, but she keeps running.

"HIDE AND SEEK!" Kuwabara calls through the caves, and she hears Kuwabara and Kurama both take off running.

"I'm going to kill you, Healer!" Hiei's voice echoes through the caves.

"Good luck!" she answers. "I'm hard to kill!"

Me'ran hides in a tunnel that goes almost straight up, pressing herself in it like a kid climbing a doorway, and she clings there, hiding her energy and hoping that Hiei's sense of smell isn't strong enough to find her.

"Going to kill that human bitch," she hears suddenly as Hiei turns down the right hallway. Me'ran begins holding her breath and her pulse begins to race, but she doesn't move.

"I know you're here, I can hear your heartbeat," he says threateningly.

Her palms sweat, and she starts to slip, and she's suddenly afraid to fall. She closes her eyes and wills herself to stick to the wall better, and she hopes that Hiei doesn't hear her.

He passes under her hole and he's about to leave, but then she slips and falls and lands clumsily on her feet. She starts running as soon as she recovers, but he moves in front of her and jumps on her and pins her down. His sword is planted into the rocks next to her head, and he seems to have gotten this wedged in there hard enough that he can't get it out, because he lets go of the blade and picks up one hand to hit her with. She grabs his arm and hold onto it, and she rolls a little, winding up on her sides, and then he gets back on top of her. He's pressed close to her, and their faces are nearly touching, and then she hears an odd voice.

"Jeez, if you wanted alone time, you could just have told us," Kuwabara whines, crossing his arms. "Or at least told us that you were together, instead of letting us keep false hope."

"Shut up!" Hiei barks, standing up, letting go of her quickly. He pulls his sword out of the ground and storms past Kuwabara. He kicks her leg on his way back to the little "living room". "Like hell I'd be 'with' that damn girl," he adds. Kuwabara grins at her and holds his hand down to help her up.

"That's okay. I'm still available."

"No, you're not!" Yuusuke answers as he comes into the area. Then, he looks at Me'ran with a concerned look on his face. "Hiei must really not like you or something," he says. "He's really mad at you."

She finally gets to her feet, ignoring Kuwabara's hand up, and she brushes herself off. "You wanna keep playing Hide and go Seek?" she asks, grinning. "If we get lost, there are four more of us to help find our way back, and I'm bored."

"Sure," Yuusuke says, grinning.


	13. Two Days Left

_Two Days Left_

"God, don't we have anything better to do?" Me'ran drawls in whining tones. As it turns out, the day the five of them got stuck down here didn't count as day one, even though all of them spent about... twelve hours or so here before any of them got any of what broken sleep they could get. Me'ran figures Anzu and Touka were hoping that being down here would kill the boys by dehydration, and leave her alive because she can't die.

However, what she thinks may actually do them all in is boredom. Me'ran and Kuwabara and Yuusuke and even Kurama, now and again, started playing little kid's games; Tag, Hide and Go Seek, and the newest member introduces them to another game that she used to play in swimming pools, called Wuss-Out. (This game is played with a diving board, normally, and someone does a trick off said diving board into the water. The leader position rotates, but whoever is leading does a trick, then must be matched or bettered by one of the followers. Without a swimming pool, this was even more fun, because if one messed up, then one had to deal with more pain. They used running up the wall as the dive, and powers other than super humanity became off limits quickly, due to inability to use spirit sword, guns, rose whip, or barriers. Yuusuke usually won, but Kuwabara managed to pull through a number of times, and even Me'ran managed to win once or twice, and Kurama, though Me'ran doubted him at first, won only a few times less than Yusuke.), Slapjack/Hot Hands, Sardines (Which is Hide-and-go-Seek where everyone looks for the one hider, and then joins him/her), and those old games where the goal is to make the other one laugh. Me'ran uses the staring one contest-laughing, mostly, but now and again, she agrees to play dumber ones like Sausage (Which is where they have to ask questions of one person and make them laugh. Their only answer can be one word. You have learned a few profanities this way.)

Me'ran and Yuusuke are playing slapjack, right now. She's almost gotten fast enough to hit him, but he's still got the backs of her hands roughly the same color of a lobster. However, she's won this game all three times she's played simply by having a higher pain tolerance. Even though he broke one of her fingers, once, on accident when she started to move and he hit her wrong.

Her hands rest on his, and she's given up on moving entirely. She's leaning back and looking at Kurama, who is back to sitting on his rock with his thumb between his front teeth. He's been sitting like this the entire time they've have been down here, not including the few minutes they talked him into playing with them.

"Kurama?" she asks. "What've you been so concentrated on?"

"A plan," he answers. He looks at her and he gives an odd smile, like he's happy, but not quite. Cautious optimism.

"To get out of here?" she asks.

"Not quite. To beat them," he sighs. She twists for a better look.

"What've you come up with?"

"I've been thinking of a diversion. I think that... Well, you would make an excellent diversion," he concedes, looking down at you with the smile again, but a different kind.

"Why would I make a good diversion?" Me'ran asks, nearly choking on her tongue as she figures out what he's talking about and Yuusuke slaps her hand at the same time. "OW!"

"Hah, three licks for me!" Yuusuke crows.

"Don't hurt yourself," she warns blandly. She thinks her hands are going to begin bleeding before long. She looks back at Kurama, and tries to hide the wincing. "Why would I make a good diversion?"

"They are interested in you. You're a female, and they need new females. Human women can only give birth once a year, and human children take a while to grow. They're planning to take advantage of their particularly strong genes. Perhaps Touka has the ability to bring demonic or animalistic traits out in humans. I'm not sure. He's the one that is..."

"Fathering," she supplies shortly before another loud slapping noises and a strange warmth spreads over her hand. Yuusuke's hands fall away from the human girl's, and he sighs.

"I quit. I made your hand bleed again," he groans, turning away.

"'Again'?" she echoes. "Did you manage to before?"

"Well, I figure that bleeding and broken go hand in hand," Yuusuke says. She licks the blood off her hand and looks back at Kurama.

"So, what? I offer myself as a gift, then..."

"They will treat it as a trap, and they will be wary, but we'll let them think they have us, until they try to set us free or kill us, whatever they intend to do, and we will attack them in return. Then the Spirit World's defenses can come and take care of everything, here."

She begins to think it over. "That might work."

He nods, then puts his thumb between his teeth and continues chewing. "It could use some thinking over, though."

"You're going to make your head explode," she giggles with a smile. He smiles back at her.

"I think if my head were going to explode, it would have, by now."

"Fair point."

* * *

"I swear, this is so fucking boring!" Me'ran whines, tossing her arms and stomping her feet and kicking a rock on the ground into a tunnel's entrance before dropping onto her ass and crossing her legs indian style and putting her fists under her chin.

"I'm going to kill the next person that whines about boring," Hiei spits from his corner of the cave.

"Fuck you, man, you can stand to sit for hours and do nothing. I get tired of that after thirty minutes. I'm an American, I'm not MADE to sit and do something down to every minute detail! Hell, if I'm sitting down for more than thirty minutes, it's because I'm asleep!"

"Shut up. Your talking is exhausting me."

"You shut up. Your talking's pissing me off," she counters. He stands up, and for the whole-bunchieth time in the last thirty-six hours, he draws his sword at her.

"Don't think you can defeat me in battle. You're wiser than that," he says, holding his sword at his side, glaring hard at her. She doesn't even face him, just glares at him out of the corners of her eyes.

"Did you forget I'm immortal?" she chides, still not facing him.

"Doesn't mean you're invulnerable," he answers.

"Who said it did?"

"I don't have to kill you, I can just cut off a hand."

"Go for it, let's see if I can't stop you."

He starts at the young woman with his sword, but it's suddenly wrapped up by a thorny green vine. Kurama pulls his whip back, and Hiei's sword clatters uselessly to the ground.

"If you're going to fight, I insist you use your fists only, Hiei. We need our Healer, even if only for defeating the one we cannot in our upcoming fight."

"What?" he demands, twisting his head. The look on his face is almost pure hate.

"Oh, yeah," Yuusuke mumbles. "That Touka guy is Indestructible, too, isn't he?"

"Oh, is that what we're called?" she asks as she grins. "He was right."

"Huh?"

"Pops used to call me Indestructible. I was going to get it tattooed down one arm, I think," she tells him with a bright smile. She sees an odd look cross Kurama's face, and Yuusuke smiles, and even Hiei looks amused. Kuwabara just looks confused, though.

"So, what's the deal with Indestructibles? Koenma didn't tell me much," she says, putting her chin on her hands and leaning forward. Hiei sits back down, all thoughts of fighting gone. He closes his eyes, too- probably to sleep.

"You're all abnormally tough," Kurama begins. "It begins at any point in life. One in three and a half million people become Indestructible, eventually.

"Something odd is the eighty-six percent of all of you are born in the year of the dragon, a sign marked by luck. The way one becomes Indestructible is by surviving your death, as Koenma undoubtedly told you," Kurama says. He's finally moved, leaning back on his hands and looking dreamily up at the sky.

"Yeah, I got that part. If you're supposed to die, and you don't, then you basically survive forever. There are things that can kill us, though. What were they?"

"Old age, mostly. A lot of you go until your body finally just can't, anymore. Suicide is another way, but that is related to the last way. An Indestructible may take another Indestructible's life. They are the only ones that can."

"So, what are the odds that I know two of them?"

"Actually, Koenma told me that you all have a terrible habit of attracting one another, by what usually appears to be sheer chance," Kurama says. "That seems to be how a lot of you survive the things you shouldn't. Chance. It's nature's way of attempting to fix the upset balance, introducing you all to one another, in hopes one will kill another."

"Nice," she says with a grin. "So, Touka's another one?"

"That's not good news," Kurama says. "That means that he will be very hard to take down, and impossible to kill. You don't like to fight, true?"

"Y. Why does that. How. What the hell?"

"It's one of the other reasons we picked you, though it wasn't a trait that any of us particularly liked. Not only do you do your job without letting your feelings get in the way, but you don't like to hurt people. It's a sign of not liking other people's pain, which means that you'd make a good healer. That's what Koenma said. I don't particularly agree, it's something that I find a sign of weakness, and it takes off quite a chance of survival by rights. However, you are not supposed to fight, so we overlooked the severity of that weakness and took it more as an advantage."

She sighs a little. "You know, this whole, 'we know everything about you' is getting a little old."

"If it makes you feel any better, the four of us actually chose you intentionally, but the screening process was incredible. Koenma first eliminated all the boys- Male Indestructibles tend to discover theirs early on, and they are very aggressive. We specifically needed a Healer, and another male would want to fight, and probably injure himself before healing any of us. From there, personality and psychological profiles were used to eliminate the unworthy candidates. He narrowed it down to you and a few others, who were eliminated, one by one, cut when we found something we couldn't stand. Needless to say, Hiei did a lot of the choosing, because he didn't want another one of us anyway, and he remains very selective in who he will even consider allowing on his side, much less trusting them to take care of him or people he considers his friends. He almost excluded you, but then he didn't complain nearly as much about things-- Which is to say that he complained about you least of all. Kuwabara disliked two when they said they hated cats. After that, we picked the one we thought we would get along with best. You aren't the only female Indestructible in the world with your personality and coping skills. Several young women, actually, were headstrong and empathetic at once, and a few less, but still many that refused to cause pain, no matter how much they wanted to. However, you were the only one that was..." He pauses, and you see how he looks like he's trying to come up with something to say.

"Enough of a demon," Yuusuke finally says.

"What's that mean?" she asks.

"Well, Hiei's the one that explained this in detail, but you know those nights where you really wanted a fight? Or when you'd watch a fight and get the contact rush? Or when you got to spar with people with those bokkens?"

Me'ran grins. "Yeah, I nearly broke poor Ben's thumb. First time I met him. But. Alright, so. I'm going for a walk," she says, swinging herself to her feet and starting to walk away. Kurama gets up, too, and he starts following her.

"Pardon me, but I would like to go with you," he mentions lightly, not really giving her the chance to say go away.

"Alrighty."

* * *

Kurama and she walk for a couple of ages, but neither of them says anything for the longest time. He takes a few preparatory breaths to speak, but he always lets them out as sighs. She doesn't press him to go ahead and say it, but she can't say she's not dying to know what he does not want to say.

"So," she finally says. Maybe he'll get it out if she starts a conversation. "I'm getting to know you guys better," she says brightly. "I think being stuck down here for three days is giving me a great opportunity to meet you guys. Though Hiei hasn't stopped trying to kill me."

"I don't think he's trying to kill you. He would have if he were trying."

"You said we survive by chance, didn't you?"

"And you did survive a punch from Yuusuke at full power."

She smiles. "Is that an accomplishment?"

"For a human, that is incredible," he answers, smiling. "I was proud for you."

"Alright," she mumbles. She feels his eyes again, but they're shifty, this time.

"You can't see in the dark, huh?" she asks, looking back up at him. Down this tunnel, there's no light, and neither of them has a spirit power that lights up the dark. She can only see the edges of the back of him where the light followed her around the tunnel. She can make out slight details as he turns to face her.

"What?" he asks, confused.

"Your eyes. You stare, most of the time, but you're not able to keep track of where I am, so it's shifty."

He smiles a little. She thinks. She's only half-able to see him. "There's not enough light to bounce off your skin, now, it makes you harder to track in the dark," he explains.

She laughs quietly and scratches her head, hiding her face under her hair. "You're kinda creepy, you know. The staring thing, and the hidden stuff under your face."

She feels him react strangely next to her as he shifts on his feet for a minute, and his face adjusts.

"The 'hidden stuff under' my 'face'?" he echoes with something like a smile. She can tell something hit him when she called him creepy, and it occurs to her why he has that odd look on his face every time he sees her, and why she feels his eyes on her, and that weird smile every time she catches him staring blatantly.

She doesn't say anything. She doesn't want to be wrong- that's a hell of an awkward situation. So she attempts to explain the phrase "hidden stuff under your face".

"You know stuff. You're always thinking. And your face is always trying to keep from showing it," she says, gesturing with her hands uselessly.

He smiles again, and she passes another hole to the sky and she can see his face again, and she can see that it's marked by that damn smile.

Well, this makes things weird, she decides in the back of her head. My former stalker and now-coworker likes me.

She paces ahead, jamming her hands in her pockets and grinning. He follows her slowly.


	14. One Day Left

_One Day Left_

Me'ran has gotten to know Kuwabara and Yuusuke, and she's met Kurama enough to know that he's in love with her, even if he hasn't told her, yet. Hiei's left, but the two can't even look at each other without fighting with each other.

The other three boys have decided to go wandering to look for food. They're all hungry, but both Me'ran and Hiei are fully aware of the fact that there is no food down here. No sun means no plant life means no bugs means no herbivores and no carnivores means nothing for them to eat. Kurama knows, too, but since she called him "creepy", he has been more reluctant to be around her without an incentive to not stare at her. Plus, Kuwabara and Yuusuke pleaded him to come along, since he can smell, hear, and see better than they can. They tried to get Hiei and Me'ran to go along, since both of them see in the dark better than the three, but both of them refuse the exercise in futility.

Me'ran's pretty sure they're lost. It's been a while. It feels like a while.

Hiei is sitting in a crevasse between two large rocks that he and Yuusuke created during a sparring session, and he's almost out of sight. Now and again, a weird glow can be seen in her peripheral vision, but when she looks, it's gone. It's just like being at home again, only she's surrounded by rocks and tunnels. The holes in the walls are familiar, though.

"God, what's taking them so long?" she finally whines.

"The Detective should have given up long ago," Hiei agrees. "It's not common for him to care for more than a few minutes at a time."

"So, why didn't you go with them?" she asks him, looking over at his crack in the wall. She can sort of see his face and his cowl, and the light off his eyes, so he looks pretty creepy.

"Do you think I wanted to get lost with those idiots?" he barks. He moves in his little hole, hiding everything but the cowl from her.

"No, but they're your friends," she says complacently. "Most of the time, you follow them."

"You're an idiot."

"No, I'm not. You do, you follow them all the time. You followed them here. You don't even work for Koenma. Kurama told me."

"Kurama has a big mouth."

"Eh, if you think so."

Silence lasts as long as she allows it. This means until she can come up with another question, she and Hiei are quiet. She, while not especially talkative, does not like silence.

"What's that eye on your forehead do?"

He doesn't answer. She continues talking, mainly out of boredom, but she's also hoping to get under his skin.

"Well, I know it hurts like a bitch if you head butt it. You nearly cried when I got you before."

"It's my Jagan eye," he answers, probably hoping to shut her up.

"Oh. Is it yours, or did you get it put in?"

"I don't see why this is any concern of yours, human," he snaps, glaring at her.

"It's not. I'm curious," she says, looking back at the hole to watch for a chance to run. She can feel his eyes on her, and murderous intent leaks into the "room".

"It's implanted," he admits.

"What's it do?"

"It gives me the power to zombify weak-willed humans that happen to displease me."

She knows that was meant to threaten her into shutting up, but she knows he can't kill her, and she wants to see what happens if he tries. So she continues to ask questions. "Anything else it does?"

"Don't you ever get tired of asking questions?"

"Well, the only thing I know about it is that it's intelligent on its own. Since it's implanted, your body shouldn't have been able to heal it, and it knew what it was doing when I gave it the energy to heal it with, so it's got a mind of its own. You use it, but it's intelligent."

"It can find anything I want it to. It gives me power. It allows telepathy. I'm sure there are other things it can do, but I have no need for it."

She smiles a little. Well, he's opening up at least a little.

"Your name is Hiei, right? Do you get family names?"

"I didn't," he says. He says "I" like it was only him. She doesn't ask. He seems put out, now. So, daunted, she scratches at her teeth for a minute.

"You always this mean to new people?"

"You're the first new person we've had."

"Ah. You always this mean to people?"

"I don't see why I should show any kindness to an annoying human girl."

"Because I saved your eye from needing replacement and I'll probably wind up saving your life."

"Shut up, or I'll force you to figure out how to heal yourself."

"Ooh, did I prove myself right?" she says with a grin. She's not sure if she means that maliciously or not. "Every time you've told me to shut up, I was right."

"Shut up," he says again.

"Did it again," she gloats, now. "What the hell's your problem anyway?"

"What?"

"You're a fuckin' bastard! It's like I did something to you! I haven't, and I know I haven't because I haven't gotten the opportunity to piss you off, yet. So quit being such a son of a bitch."

She's not real sure what happened after that, but it hurt, whatever it was. She opens her eyes and she's on her feet, but only just, and her face hurts. She tries to figure out what happened. She looks at him. He's standing on the ground with his feet braced and one fist clenched, so she guesses he hit her.

"Ow," she whispers, putting her hand to her cheek. She tastes blood, and her teeth are much looser than they started out.

"Do not insult me," he spits.

She's not sure why, but she's just overcome with rage at him for hitting her, and she runs at him and slugs him in the face for slugging her. He catches her fist, but she feels his grip slip a little, and she throws the other fist at him, using her body torque to put more pressure behind her punch. He catches that one, too, but she's stronger than him (physically) and he basically winds up backhanding his own face. He sends a foot up to kick her in the stomach anyway, but she blocks by picking up her leg and putting his back down, and she puts her foot in his ribs. It's normally harder for her to kick people in the ribs, but he's pretty short. He winces, and she knows she hurt him, but he doesn't let her know it. She feels a strange surge of energy, and another impact, and then she feels the ground under her back. She wasn't even aware she was falling.

"Damn you!" she curses, getting back up. He smirks and goes after her again, but this time, she catches both his arms, and she rolls onto her back, throwing him over her head. He lands, and she hears him skid a little bit as he slides, then rolls to get up. She's already back on her feet and she leans forward and picks her back foot up to kick him up over her head again. ((Genkai told her that she'd never gotten to teach anyone tricks like that because all of them were male and not that strong when made to move like that.)) He hits the ground in front of her, and she swings the leg that she just kicked him with around and up, then down at him to heel smash him. He rolls, and the ground crunches under her foot, but then he moves away and moves to prepare another attack. "Son of a bitch," she growls at him, pissed off at the fact that he's still trying to hurt her. It's what set him off last time, and she's aiming to just piss him off again.

The two stand there for a second, but then she feels not only one impact, but a whole bunch, and her back meets the wall. The pummeling doesn't stop for a minute, but then something else happens, and the force that was hitting her stops, and she falls down onto her knees, then back against the wall. It hurts to breathe, and she's vaguely aware of how much her back hurts, too, and her head.

"What the hell were you doing?!" shrieks Yuusuke's voice. Oh, nice, they saved me. There's a hand on her back, patting it for a second, and then they pick her up by her shoulders, and she puts her hands down and coughs for a second. Apparently, she stopped breathing while he was hitting her.

"Stupid human bitch," Hiei growls. He did that thing with his voice that makes it just sound like he just said the most awful thing in the world, like he absolutely hates her.

"Fucking bastard," she answers, looking up at him. For an instant, his red eyes burn into her blue ones, and she has to fight back the urge to hit him again. It helps that Kurama's got his hands tight over her shoulders, holding her back. She sees Hiei start to move for her, but Yuusuke throws his arm in the way, and Kuwabara catches his cowl.

"Back off her, Hiei," Yuusuke demands. His voice did something weird, too. He sounded just damn leaderly. Hiei moves again, and she almost jumps up, though to attack or defend, she's not sure. Kurama holds her tighter, and whispers a plea. She's not sure what he says, but she knows he's pleading with her to stay still.

Hiei finally steps back and storms off with a derisive "hn", and she hears him go down the tunnel towards the lake.

"Jeez, what'd you do?" Yuusuke asks. She's recovering. It still hurts to breathe, but that might be the bruising.

"I called him a son of a bitch. Twice. The second time was deliberate," she groans as she sits up. Yuusuke rubs the back of his head.

"Uh, that's not. Uh. You're an idiot."

"You watched me, you know I piss people I'm fighting off on purpose. Even if I can't hurt them, I'll certainly do what I can to piss them off."

Yuusuke grins and rubs the back of his head. "Well, apparently, Hiei doesn't appreciate people calling his mother names."

"No, no, apparently not," she agrees. She moves away from the guys and picks her shirt up. His fist-prints are all over her chest and stomach. She half wants to go chase him down and eat his brain out of his skull, or smash that third eye in, but she decides against it, and she lies down on her preferred rock, her so dubbed couch.

hr 

It's nighttime before Hiei comes back. Kuwabara's sleeping soundly, and Yuusuke and Kurama are just nodding off. Both of them look up when Hiei comes in, but they dismiss it, apparently. She closes her eyes to fake sleep, but she knows he knows she's faking.

He goes back to his crack in the wall, and her faking sleep almost becomes real sleep as she drifts into a dream, but then something in the dream world touches her ribs, and she jumps up and nearly cries out. She looks around in the pitch blackness, looking for motion, to see if she's awakened any of the boys. Nothing but Kuwabara's mumblings, which he does pretty frequently. She kind of wishes the moon wasn't half- at least then she could see at little through the hole.

"Did you finally wake up, Healer?"

She nearly jumps out of her skin when Hiei's sardonic voice breaks the silence. She fights down the urge to scream or wet herself. "'Finally'?" she asks. "Was I sleep talking again?"

"You make more racket than the bigger idiot does," he confirms.

"I'd apologize, but it's probably my sleep-rock's fault."

She hears him grunt, and she sees a little motion in the dark, Hiei, and she braces herself. She's waiting for a blow to come, because it's so dark in here tonight that if he tries to hurt her, there's no way the boys would be able to see well enough to help.

"I can see where I hit you," he says. She sees the weird glow of his eye again, and she scowls.

"So it can see in the dark, too, can it?"

She hears him laugh, sort of. It's a lot colder than most laughs, but it's more than that grunt. "You're already over that grudge you were holding against me?"

"I don't hold grudges," she grumbles. "You're about to piss me off all over again, though."

He moves towards her and she gets up, but he doesn't make a false move. She can see his face, now.

"You should have broken at least a little," he says, looking at her more carefully. She pushes him back. "I'm stronger than that. I've killed demons with punches like the one at your face."

"It bruised," she points out, touching it lightly with her fingertips. "You like me better now that you know you can kick my ass or what?"

"You may be useful," is all he says, walking to his crack in the wall and vanishing back into it. She grumbles quietly and puts her head back down to sleep.


	15. Last Day

_Last Day_

They're all sleeping when Touka appears in the morning. Me'ran wakes up when a clash of blades sounds loudly enough to echo through the whole cave, and she shoots bolt upright when she realizes Hiei's standing over her, holding Touka's knife back.

"Hiei?" she asks quietly. Touka steps back.

"I was going to finish you off before you got a chance to finish me off. I can kill you, you know. They can't, but I can, and I will, and I want to. Niisan doesn't agree with me," Touka says as he eases back, smiling at her in such a way that she gets goose bumps.

"Why were you sent?" Kurama asks. Apparently, it woke him up, too.

"I'm supposed to tell you the way out," he says. He doesn't sound happy. But then he jumps into a hole above the one that leads to the lake. "This way. Walk straight until you can't, then turn around and count two on the right and go there, and then count one on the left then three on the right, and you'll see sun. You'll be able to get out. It'll take all day."

Hiei swings his sword at him, but Touka sinks into the ground and cackles like a maniac.

"Well, I suppose we'd better be going," Kurama says. "Hiei, you'll have to lead. It gets very dark."

Hiei looks unhappy at the idea, but he jumps up to the tunnel, then waits for her and the other boys to follow him. Kuwabara needs Me'ran and Yuusuke to boost him up.

"Alright, so, what now?" she asks as she starts down the tunnel. She's already figured out how she's going to remember how to get there. She's holding two fingers on her right hand up, then one on her left, then she's got the remaining three fingers on her right hand curled funny. So unless the boys make her use her hands, she's not going to forget.

"I could just cut off the three at the knuckle. Then the memory will be imprinted in pain, too, and you'll be even less likely to forget, even if we do make you use your hands," Hiei threatens. She can hear him smiling.

"Hiei," Kurama warns, but she's got her own comeback.

"Sure- just remember that I heal with my fingers. Cut 'em off, I get to go home."

"Hold still, then," he challenges. She freezes, then starts to move for him, hoping he'll freeze or be confused, but both Yuusuke and Kurama pull her back, and Yuusuke steps between the two of them.

"What the hell is up with you, Hiei!?" Yuusuke demands.

She can see Hiei making a cute face. "I wasn't going to kill her, even if I could. I'm not stupid. I know better than to kill a Healer as good as this one."

Well, she thinks, that was the strangest compliment I've ever received.

"Then what the hell?"

"I was going to see how she reacted," Hiei says. She can almost see his face trying to look innocent. Then he turns his back and continues walking down the tunnel.

Yuusuke seems stumped by this answer, and he chokes on his words for a second before he just growls a little and goes back to the back of the line. "Me'ran, stay back here with me," he says, taking her wrist in his hand and pulling her back.

"No!" she responds roughly, pulling her wrist back. "If that bastard tries to hurt me, I'll see how well he fights when he can't punch."

"What?"

"And how do you expect to take that ability away from me, girl?" snips Hiei in the most arrogant tones she's ever heard.

"The problem with most martial arts is that REAL up close and personal combat doesn't really work. I'm not talking about getting in their face and punching them, I mean like rolling on the floor and grappling and twisting and pretty much tying yourself into a knot to figure out how to hold them still and hurt them at the same time."

"You know, that sounds like real kinky innuendo," Yuusuke points out.

"Well, fighting and sex are both really natural, really physical things. So, naturally, talking about one can sound like you're talking about the other," you say.

"You're wiser than you immediately come across," Kurama points out. He sounds pleased about it, but she doesn't say anything for a second, mainly because she's not sure what to say. That's okay, Yuusuke takes over for her.

"Yeah, you know, you were always kinda weird when we were just watching you, but that was probably because we weren't sure what you were thinking. Hiei got it, now and then, but mostly we just stayed confused," he points out.

"Like when?" she asks, stumbling over something in the dark. Someone catches her arm and holds her upright, but he doesn't say anything.

"Like... remember that time about a month before we kidnapped you when you were pacing the high school's roof and yelling about purpose of life?"

"Or when you'd yell at us."

"Or when you'd start a fight and still not even try to hurt them."

"Or when you'd wander into nowhere in the middle of the night."

Me'ran smiles sheepishly and rubs the back of her head. "Yeah... I don't... Well... I'm not normal," she stammers emptily. "The on the roof thing was trying to think, the yelling at you was you bringing my attention to you and freaking me out, and the fighting thing is the fact that I hate causing pain to people, and the wandering off was the need to move."

"Well, we liked it. After we figured you weren't crazy."

And Me'ran can't help but smile at that.

* * *

For the rest of the day, Me'ran and the boys walk, and they get into various time-wasting conversations. Someone starts in on whether or not roses actually smell good, and Kurama gets insulted when she says that roses are only thought to smell good because of Shakespeare, and the topic changes to how it doesn't matter what they say in literature because Yuusuke and Kuwabara don't read anything but comics anyway. And then someone gets into why reading is stupid, and it continues from there.

* * *

They have to sleep in the tunnel when they all finally get tired, and Hiei has to use his Jagan eye to see Kurama's watch to tell what time it was anyway. They're in the last tunnel, but they're far enough from the exit that they can't see any light, and it's midnight, and the rocks around them are all rough and sharp, so sleeping becomes a chore.

"I don't see why we can't just keep walking until we get outside," Yuusuke whines.

"Because I don't think any of us can carry Kuwabara by ourselves without passing out ourselves within a few minutes," Me'ran answers bleakly, putting her arm between the ground and her head and stretching her neck uncomfortably.

"Fuck him, I wanna get out of here, this is no good for sleeping. At least in our little living room place, all the rocks were smooth."

"Rain doesn't go down this tunnel, so there's been nothing to take off the edges," she answers, closing her eyes and rolling a little and trying to get comfortable on her back. She already knows that she doesn't sleep well on her back, but her chest is completely uncomfortable on these rocks.

"The walls aren't as bad," Hiei comments. He's sleeping sitting up, leaning back against the rocks with his elbows on his knees and his sword resting against his shoulder. She stretches a little and pulls herself over to where Hiei's leaning and she tries leaning against the wall the same way, but it doesn't work, so she curls up a little tighter than he is and puts her head on her knees and tries to sleep that way.

She doesn't remember falling asleep, but she does remember dreaming a little when someone touches her arm and wakes her up. She can see a little light at the end of the tunnel, and for some reason, the joke is just enough to make her feel a little better. (( -- Lame.))


	16. Second Try

_Second Try_

Me'ran and the boys step out into the sun at about seven in the morning. The sun's still bright, and the weather is surprisingly cold for September. Me'ran's eyes hurt when she moves out into the light, and she closes them and puts her face to Kurama's back with a quiet, pained, "Agh."

"It took you this long to find your way?" Anzu's voice asks. Me'ran looks up at him and squint.

"My eyes hurt," she grumbles. She's not sure who she's talking to. Probably no one. She remembers the plan, now, though, and she looks up at Kurama. "Do I still have to...?"

"Yes," he says, looking colder than normal. She whimpers, now deciding to act. Anzu looks at the five and quirks an eyebrow.

"Do you have a plan?" he asks teasingly, leaning his head to one side and smirking.

"Sort of," Kurama confirms. "We're trading Me'ran for our freedom."

He looks shocked, and he narrows his eyes. "Are you that afraid?"

"Fool. Of course we are not afraid," Hiei spits, somehow keeping every bit of his arrogance in with something resembling surrender. "It's a simple matter of skill. We're not good enough to defeat you without using teamwork, and we don't do teamwork."

Kurama nods to second Hiei's statement. "We have worked together, but we are not accustomed to doing so in a way that would be even remotely beneficiary. Hiei and I am, and Kuwabara and Yuusuke are, but each combination is ill-suited for the opponents."

Me'ran's pushed forward as a part of the show, and she turns to glare at the one who pushed her (Hiei). "Dammit, I'm going... Just... Wait. Promise to let them go?" she asks, turning now, slouching her shoulders and looking up at Anzu. She also fakes a look of terror, and she tries to will her heart to slow down. She's nearly panicking, praying that they won't see through the ruse and she'll be able to do it.

"Of course," Anzu answers. A sadistic grin splits his face, and she can only wonder if it's a sign of lying or if that's just his version of smiling.

Me'ran takes a few cautious steps forward. Touka appears in her shadow and grabs her arm and pulls her back. The boys give little bows and start to walk off, and she knows it's her job to stun both of the bad guys, though how is of her own invention. She's afraid it won't work. But then they fix the idea by inspiring another one.

Anzu points at Kuwabara and starts to form a shot in his fingers, and she lets out an ear-splitting shriek. It startles all four boys and gets them to turn back around and see the trick. Then Me'ran swings her head back into Touka's mouth and she swings one leg up and kicks Anzu in the nose. Touka tightens his grip on the girl and bites the back of her neck, but that only hurts. She kicks his knee, and she can see a flicker of black as Hiei joins her.

Me'ran and Touka and Hiei take turns throwing each other around. Twice, she hits Hiei on accident, and he hits her back, and Touka scratches each with his knives repeatedly. Hiei has to save Me'ran from getting full blown stabbed three or four times.

The biggest problem with that whole fight is that Touka's going for Me'ran and she's not fast or strong enough to fight him well. Hiei spends a lot of time blocking for her, and twice, he stabs Touka in the chest, but Touka keeps going like nothing happened. It is remembered somewhere in the back of Me'ran's head that he's Indestructible, and that the two are the only ones that can kill the two. Hiei tries to knock him out, but it doesn't work.

Touka swings a blade at her, but Hiei knocks it away. She swings for Touka, but he steps back and lunges at her. Hiei blocks again. Touka stabs Hiei, then lunges at her and knocks her onto her back. Hiei is recovering, and in the meantime, Touka is pounding the crap out of her. She thrashes and kicks until she braces her feet in his middle and throws him up and back. He lands on his feet and slides, and he starts for her again, but Hiei catches him again. There's a knife/sword fight for a few minutes, until Hiei is shouldered out of the way. Me'ran's gotten to her feet, and she meets Touka head on. She kicks him in the chin, and he cuts her leg deep, and she responds by elbowing him in the head. He cuts her over her eyebrow, and blood shoots from it and leaks into her eye. That eye closes, but she doesn't let him out of her sight. Hiei pulls her back by the shirt and he steps back into the fight.

While Me'ran's trying to recover from the blindness in her left eye, there's a great impact in her face. She steps back and holds her nose, and she feels a sharp pain in her shoulder, and her hand shoots to it to pulls the knife out of it. Instead of dropping or throwing it, Me'ran holds it tightly in her fist and dives back into the fight. She swings the knife in front of her, and she figures out where he is when the knife catches his skin, and she lunges at him. A knife gets jammed into her side, but she doesn't pay it any mind. Her arm loops around the arm that just stabbed her, going under it, then curling around, hooking her elbow into his shoulder, and her fist slides sideways, wrapping him into a bizarre embrace with her fist at the side of his neck. All this is done beyond Me'ran's control, and all the teachings from Genkai come straight out of her. She watches as the blade goes deep into his neck. He falls back onto his back, and the way she has her arm wrapped around him pulls her with him, and she falls on top of him. She didn't even mean to stab him, but she did. Then she starts to pull the knife out, but she already knows it's too late. She learned a lot of anatomy from Genkai, and that wound is too big for him to not bleed out through, even if it wasn't a major artery.

She rolls off him and scoots away, crawling/scooting backwards, listening to herself pant and whimper. Oh, god, I just killed him. I killed him. He's dead, I just killed someone.

He's not quite dead, actually. He's gurgling and spitting and he rolls onto his stomach and he crawls at her, but she watches his face twist as he realizes he's not alright, and he falls onto his face, and he puts his hand to his neck and looks at his dark red life's blood. She watches, numb, hardly aware that she's even there. It takes him a little bit of rolling on the ground, gurgling uselessly, and he finally falls over onto his side and lies still.

She stares at him, absolutely horrified, unable to pull her eyes away. Her body's gone almost completely numb, and something in her feels just absolutely miserable, and she feels tears fill her eyes, but she doesn't blink. The blurring of her vision is welcome.

"Me'ran?" someone asks. She's startled by the voice, and she gives a brief scream and nearly flips over to look at whoever just spoke. It's Yuusuke.

She looks up at him and she doesn't know what to do or say. Her mouth works uselessly for a second, and she hears herself shriek in a terrified and terrifying voice, "I killed him!"

"Oto? Oto?!" Anzu starts calling. She cries out again, this time for sheer horror at what she's done and buries her face in her knees, folding herself into quarters and wrapping her hands around herr head, and she starts to weep.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she whimpers. She kind of wishes Anzu could kill her- at least then she wouldn't feel so bad. But when she looks at him, she can see that he's weeping, and he's being held back by Kurama's whip, which is keeping him tied up.

"Oh, god, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she keeps whispering. Her hands go to her mouth, and her eyes move and she can't help but stare at Touka's dead body. She feels the guilt sucking her guts in, and she feels sick to her stomach.

Me'ran feels her hands shaking, and she looks around, trying to get some sense of herself back. There are strange people floating around, probably from Spirit World. She feels someone pick her up, and she looks up to see Kurama. Hiei's hovering somewhere close, and she closes her eyes and her hand twitches as she relives the fight, jamming that knife into his throat...

"He was going to kill both of us if you didn't kill him," Hiei says comfortingly. She thinks it was meant to be comforting, anyway. The words are, to a small extent.

She remembers her own injuries, suddenly, when she spots Hiei's bleeding face. She looks at her wounds and stares at the blood on her hands, mingling with the darker purplish red of Touka's. She wonders if or when it'll stop. Normally, it would have by now. She doesn't mind it. She can't bleed out through it.

"It's alright," Kurama says. "You didn't have a choice, and you did the right thing."

"Get away from me," Me'ran whimpers. "I want to go home. I want to go home, I want to go home."

Kurama waits a second, and he starts to carry her away, and she stretches for the ground. Not my apartment, dummy.

"I'll. It's. What train?" She bubbles weakly after she gets her feet down.

"If you'll just let me take you... I'll let you go home on your own time, but at least let us get you as far as the city," Kurama says. His face is full of uncertainty and concern and worry. He doesn't seem sure of what to do, now, either. Me'ran looks past him and see Touka on the ground again, and Anzu's tear-streaked face, and she starts to run. She's followed closely by Kurama and Hiei.


	17. Guilt

_Guilt_

Kurama does as he said he would and he leaves Me'ran alone after she gets off the train. She's back in the city her apartment's in, but she doesn't want to go to her apartment. Hiei vanishes, but she still feels him close. She starts running as soon as she figures out where she wants to go, and she doesn't stop 'til she reaches the top of the condemned building. It's noon, now. She's not sure how so much time passed, but she doesn't care. It's still decently cold. She wishes it were nighttime, though. She sits in the little house-thing over the stairs, and she leans against the wall. Her mind does the rest of the work for her, playing it over and over and over and over. Her hand twitches when she remembers how she puts the knife into his neck. She did it. She didn't even accidentally do it, she did it because she was taught to, and because he scared her, and she murdered him.

"He was just a demon. What do you care?" a dark voice says behind her. She doesn't even turn to face him--she knew he was there, and she knows who it is.

"God, Hiei, if you don't fuck off, I'll kill myself, and they'll blame you for it."

"I don't think they'll blame me for it, given the condition you're in."

"I'll just write, 'Hiei made me do it' on the wall in my blood. Kurama knew I'd come here, he'd look and see."

He's silent. She almost feels a little better just for making a shot that got him to shut the hell up. But then he goes back to the original subject. She guesses he figures she won't do it.

"He was prepared to die."

"No, he wasn't. He knew I wasn't physically capable of it, and that no one else could. Why the fuck are you here anyway? You hate me!"

"I don't want someone as useful as you dead, and the way you're going, you seem like you're about ready to do yourself in, and this would be the best place to do it."

"'Useful'," she spits in echo. The guts that the monster of guilt shat are now bubbling in a pot together, heated by her rage. She wonders if killing him would make her feel better. She decides it wouldn't. "Until you give a shit about something besides 'The Healer', fuck off."

"No," he answers. "You're being stupid. You're working for Spirit World because you're the best one for the job, as far as humans go. If you're going to be crippled by a little blood on your hands, then you're not worth it."

"Then go tell that passy-sucking mother fucker that I want to go the fuck home."

"After all the torture that hag put you through, you want to go home to seven people in a three bedroom house, to listen to all of them fight over who finished the last of the milk and that prat brother of yours hit your sister because she told him to shut up, and your other sister screaming because it's not her job to do the laundry?"

She looks back at him. "I hate how much you freaks know about me," she finally barks. "It doesn't matter. The last time I felt guilt, I stole candy from the grocery store when I was three and I felt bad about it until I was five. This is considerably worse, Hiei."

"I kill demons all the time. They're not that bad."

"Heartbeats don't make people. You know everything else, why don't you know that I even consider my pets people?"

He seems taken aback. But even throughout this fight, she realizes she's feeling a little better, if only for the distraction.

"So you feel bad for protecting your comrades and doing your job? You knew you'd have to kill him. You knew that if we couldn't make him stop, you would have to. He nearly killed you with that wound in your side. Half an inch over and he'd have gotten your liver, and you'd have bled to death in Kurama's arms. You were protecting yourself."

"I wasn't able to protect myself. You did most of it for me. Oh... Come here."

"What?"

"He got you." She's still a little numb, and she's expecting nightmares, but once she gets over what an ass Hiei is, he's helping. She feels better. She's outside herself, at least, and that's always a better way to be when something bad happens.

He doesn't move to her, so she moves to him. He even tries to move away, but she grabs his sleeve and pull off his cloak enough to see the knife gashes in his arm, and she heals them. He tries to pull away, but she's stronger than him by physical means alone, and she can hold him still by his wrist.

"Damn human," he says. But this time, it sounds like a compliment. Sort of.

Her hand twitches for the hole in his shoulder, and he catches her wrist.

"Stop that."

"I owe you. You at least helped me step out of me," she says quietly.

"Hn, I was just paying you back for killing him. I can't stand to be in any human's debt."

He stands up and straightens his cloak, and he fixes his cowl.

"All of your kind are insane."

"My kind?"

"Indestructible. Unbreakable. I believe in the Makai, you're called Undying, since many demons cannot die of old age. Whatever you choose to call yourselves," Kurama's voice sounds up the stairway. "You all suffer some form of mental displacement. Hello, Hiei. I didn't know I'd find you up here with her."

"She's not the most stable, and she can still kill herself. It'd be bad if we had to explain why we let her die to Koenma, and it would be worse if we had to choose one of those irritating bitches."

He's gone no sooner than he finishes his statement, and she sees Kurama come up the stairs. She moves down them to meet him.

"What did he say?" Kurama asks as he moves closer to Me'ran, until he's on the same stair. She feels him looking her over, probably for any injuries. He almost touches at the one on her shoulder, from which she drew the knife, but she bats his hand away. He puts his hands in his pockets and moves out onto the roof. She follows him, then move to her corner and sit down. He sits in front of her and looks her in the face. "If he suggested anything negative, you should ignore him. He's not the kindest of people."

"He told me I was protecting you guys."

"And you were."

She doesn't know why, but the depression hits harder than it did before. She thinks for a second to figure out why she's still so stressed, until she figures it out. "That's not why I killed him." Her voice breaks when she says 'killed', but she steps out of herself and forces the stinging of her eyes and nose to stop. "I killed him because..."

"Instinct. You killed him to survive," he finishes for her.

"Who am I to put someone's life over my own?" she whimpers. He smiles and he reaches over and touches her arm gently. It's a strange sensation to be touched, and even stranger by a male. His hand is cold and soft. There's very little callous on it, too. She looks at his hand, then at his face. His expression is softer than his palm, and he has a very weak smile on his face. She can see worry in his bright green eyes, and she's hit again with the idea that he does feel for her.

"You did not do it consciously. You do not have murderous intent. You weep for the wicked. You're not a bad person," Kurama says comfortingly. He's not like Hiei. He's trying to help you feel better because he cares about you, which, in a way, is better. "You were protecting yourself, and, in turn, us."

"I am a bad person. I killed him."

"Bad people don't cry when they hurt someone that was trying to hurt them. Bad people do not put complete strangers' lives before their own. And bad people would not be sitting on top of a building contemplating suicide simply because she was subconsciously protecting herself."

"Did you see the look on his face before he died?" she whines. Somehow, even though the words are sinking in, she does not believe him as well as she believed Hiei. Somewhere in the back of her head, she figures it's because Hiei was telling her facts, and Kurama's trying to make her feel better.

"I did. He looked angry, Given ten more seconds of life, he would have killed you and Hiei and me and Kuwabara and Yuusuke, or, at least, tried. He almost killed you when you dealt the fatal blow." The look on Kurama's face is no longer as gentle as it was. He looks sincere, now, but almost angry. She wonders if he understands the guilt, and figures he doesn't.

"It didn't even get close to killing me," she argues. She puts her hand to the spot at the pinch of her waist where the blade sunk in. He was literally inches from her liver, and, yes, she would have bled to death in minutes.

"He was mad. His life revolved around murder. He killed what he could. He had raped every human woman he'd come across on command of his brother. You made it stop the best way you could," he says, finally. He sounds half-defeated, and he now leans back on his heels and he looks almost pleading. She wonders how he can do that without his face changing visibly. "Will you please, just... Come with me. It's going to rain today, and I don't want you catching cold on the way home."

He stands up and takes her hands in his and guides her to her feet gently, then he starts back toward the door, pulling her gently by a remaining grip on her hand. She follows him. As he gets to the door, he looks expectantly, but there are traces of worry left in his face.

"Quit looking like that. I wouldn't kill myself. I don't allow that much cowardice," she finally spits, tuning out the mental anguish with her thoughts.

He smiles a little more genuinely, and he continues leading her down the stairs. She follows him silently, and, again, her hand twitches as she relives how the blade sunk into his neck and tore at it, and she remembers the resistance against the blade all too clearly.

"Me'ran," Kurama says, getting her attention. Me'ran looks up at him, then looks around to see why he said her name. She's back at the apartment complex, outside the stairs.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asks her slowly. She nods. He sighs a little, but he looks a little more cheerful.

"Alright. Yuusuke is-"

"Three doors down. You sound like my mother. Go home, I'm sure yours is worried about you."

He looks a little surprised, but then turns, and she sees him start running. She is mildly surprised. Maybe his mother really is worried about him?

She goes upstairs to her room and collapses onto her bed, and she doesn't move for the rest of the day, except for the twitches of her hand when her muscles fire off, or when she pets the knife wound in her shoulder. You gave that knife a new sheath, didn't you. Murderer.

"I was defending myself. Kill or be killed."

That doesn't make killing him okay.

"As an animal, it does."

You're not an animal.

"I am. Humans are animals. They do what they can to protect their young, their pack mates, and themselves. Fuck off. He was killing to kill, I was killing to save myself. He wasn't even supposed to kill me, he just wanted to. He didn't have to."

And that's no better.

"Fuck off. I'm going to sleep."

She rolls over onto her stomach, puts her head under her quilts, fixes it so that she can breathe, and she cracks her sliding door so she'll have the cold air coming in and maybe help her ground herself.


	18. Hiei Asks For Help?

_Hiei Asks for Help?_

Three days, Me'ran stays pretty much in the same shape. She has nightmares of stabbing herself in the neck, or of him coming back to life and strangling her, and a few just really painful ones where she's taken to the bowels of hell.

She wakes up on her back, crying out in pain, realizing that her legs haven't been dismembered like they were in that last dream, and she sits up and moves the quilt to see that she's still in one piece. She gets up and goes to the bathroom and leans onto the bathtub. She thinks about using the showerhead and just sitting there under it, but she changes her mind and she breathes a little and goes to get dressed. It's two in the morning, she's got school in a little while. (She usually leaves at five, because the walk to school takes three hours. She could take a bus, but walking's nicer.)

Since she's gotten here, she's made it a habit to eat breakfast and carry it with her on her long walk to school. Kurama still waits for her at the door, so she walks to school with him. Today, she considers cutting school, but she doesn't. She's got shit to do, and she missed those two days at the beginning of the week.

Me'ran half-tumbles down the stairs. She's skipping breakfast, today. She doesn't feel like it.

"Meru..." Kurama begins. "Were you up all night?"

"Close, but no," Hiei's cynical voice barks. "I could hear her whimpering in her sleep out of town."

"Fuck off, Hiei," Me'ran grumbles, putting her hand to her forehead and holding up her head.

"Nightmares?" Kurama asks her. She can hear the worried tones in his voice.

"From Hell. Literally, in half the cases," she confirms. "I woke up three hours ago thinking my legs had been taken off."

"That's unrelated to killing someone," Kurama points out.

"He was the one shredding my legs."

"Oh. Perhaps you should stay home?"

"It's Friday. No point."

"Hm. Alright, well... I'll check on you at lunch, if you don't mind."

"Whatever."

* * *

Me'ran fights for consciousness over most of the day. Sleep attempts to kick her ass, but she beats it back with her hunger and depression. She does, however, realize how badly her grades have been slipping. The teacher posted them, and she's noticed a definite drop in the numbers.

"Fuck it," Me'ran announces at lunch as she goes up to the roof to hide in a shady spot. Kurama's waiting by the door.

"Are you alright?"

"I found out how bad I've done in class all week."

"Which class?"

"All of them."

He pats her shoulder and smiles a little.

"I'll give you something later to help you fix it."

"What?"

"Some tea. As you know, I'm something of an herbalist. I've been trying to figure out a plant that might help you since you got into this... shape. I have it figured out, now. There may be side effects, but I don't approve of animal testing, so I'm not sure what they'll be. However, you can't die by my hand, so there is only a small worry."

"Mm. Here," she says passing him her pathetic lunch. "I don't want it, I'll fall asleep if I eat."

* * *

After school, Me'ran follows Kurama home. Halfway there, Hiei starts following, too, and he greets them in Kurama's room by perching on the window sill and leaning inside over Kurama's desk.

"Taking advantage of her weak-mindedness?"

"Don't mock me, Hiei," Kurama says. She can see the look on Hiei's face, and she sort of smiles. It was a joke.

"I'm not mocking you. You haven't even told her, have you?"

"I'm not going to," Kurama answers. She can hear him getting angry. She almost laughs. That's funny to hear.

"Relax. Hiei, leave him alone, and, Kurama, you don't have to tell me whatever it is."

Me'ran watches both of them shift a little, Kurama to relax, and Hiei to stare hard at her. She feels something in her mind itch, and she looks at him.

"Are you looking in my head?" she asks.

"Hiei, stay out of there, you'll catch something," Kurama chides with a smile.

Hiei seems terribly amused at Kurama's joke. He's fighting a smile.

"You're not funny, Kurama," she attempts to whine. Her heart doesn't go well into it, though. She sees him smiling, though, so she figures he knows it was a joke. She moves over to see what Kurama's doing. He's picking dried leaves out of little piles or stacks of them on his desk, putting all of them in a little drawstring pouch.

"Did I hurt your feelings?" he asks, pausing what he's doing to look and see if her face shows any hurt. She smiles.

"I was playing along. It doesn't sound very playful, though. Sorry."

He nods a little and goes back to what he was doing.

Hiei follows her home. She's not sure why. She thinks Kurama put him up to it.

"You knew?"

"I've known since the second day in the caves," she mumbles. "He wasn't going to tell me because he knows I don't hold the same feelings for him, and I think it's creepy when I catch him staring at me."

Hiei thinks this is funny.

"That damn fox. I told him to stop. I knew you were aware of it. The answer he came up with was something close to... That... cute. It was pathetic."

Hearing Hiei say "cute" is like listening to a five-year-old talk about today's government. "Oh? What'd he say?"

Hiei smirks again and tucks his head down. "He said, 'It's hard to take your eyes off true beauty'. He'd been planning to say that to you, but he won't, now."

"Why are you following me, then, and not him?"

"He had homework. I'm babysitting you until you fall asleep."

"'babysitting'? I bet I'm older than you. I'm older than the other three. What's Kurama, fifteen?"

"I'm a demon. Even if I am younger than you, I lie very well, and that's not even considering that even if you know the truth, you won't challenge an obvious lie."

"That's full of it. I used to do that with the kids I babysat and my sisters all the time."

"You had evidence."

"Don't you ever get bored with remembering all the useless shit in my life that even I've forgotten?"

"Of course. Do you know how long I sat in America, smelling that horrific air around your house, waiting for you to get a bit of moon madness and hide under your bridge? Or making those noises just to pester you while you sat on your roof? I got bold enough to mess with your hair to see how you reacted."

"Knew I wasn't imagining that shit," she mumbles, going into her apartment. Hiei hops up the outside balconies, but she uses the stairs.

She puts the tealeaves into a kettle that she fills with one cup's worth of water, and she sits down at her table. Hiei seems to prefer hovering next to her window.

"I'm going to borrow you, soon," Hiei says. "I need your help."

She's not sure what catches her off guard more- Hiei wanting her to come along with him, or Hiei admitting the need for help.

"What do you need my help with?" she asks, instead of refusing up front.

"There's a mansion rigged with traps in the Makai. It's been empty for centuries, but no one's been able to get into it because of the traps. You're hard to even wound, and you're impossible to kill- you'll have no problem. Even if one of us gets hurt, you can heal it."

"Who is 'us'? I can't heal myself."

"I have accomplices. You're obligated to come. If you don't, I'll take you anyway, and if you refuse to follow, then we'll drag you to the Makai and I'll leave you there until I'm sure you've been at least half-eaten and see how stubborn you'll still be."

She gets up and pours her tea into her cup and put it onto a different burner on the stove, and she sits next to the table with the cup for a second, waiting for it to cool down.

"I'll do it. Just. Don't die. Then I won't be able to get back."

"That's what you'll be there for."

"I hope you know, Hiei, I hate you."

"Good. The feeling's mutual."

She puts her teacup to her lips and she takes a few tastes. It's bitter, but it's not that bad, once she gets used to it. She finishes it off quickly, and ignore the bits of leaves in her mouth. She should have a tea strainer or something. Oh well.

No sooner than she finishes the tea, she gets up, and she gets to her room, and she falls onto her bed and she passes out almost immediately.


	19. Great Day

_Great Day_

The next day, she wakes up. Obviously. For some reason, she remembers that she had a really bad week, but she doesn't remember why, and she's having trouble concentrating every time she tries to remember why she's having trouble. She takes the whole time she's cooking her breakfast and humming to herself to try to figure it out. She's really cheerful this morning, too. Great night's sleep, lovely weather, cold enough that she can see her breath, but she can still go out in short sleeves. It's going to rain in a couple of days, she already knows.

This morning, she decides to have pancakes, and she overloads them with syrup, and she kind of wishes Japan had Waffle House. Oh well.

She skips merrily (Oh, god, there's something wrong with me, I'm gonna drive myself nuts,) to the bathroom and she runs the bath and starts washing herself.

Somewhere between the first soak and washing her hair, she remembers why she was having such a bad week. Someone that had her name killed someone. She doesn't remember doing it. In fact, it's more like she was told about someone else doing it, and she imagined being them at the time. Alright, now that's figured out. Now I have to remember why I don't remember doing this. Because I did it, because no one else I know has my name, even in America, and no one in Japan shares my name or nickname. "I like that nickname," she says with a smile. "Me'ran. Damn shame I won't be saying it much."

_"God, that sounds so queer,"_ she says to herself in English. She washes the soap out of her hair, then gets back in the tub and scalds off another layer of skin, and she soaks forever and she gets dressed and goes to the bedroom to pick up her room and air out her bed on the balcony. She starts singing while she's at it, and she faces the cloudy sky and sniffs the air. She was six hours off. It's going to rain, yes, but it's going to rain tomorrow evening, not in two days.

Me'ran breathes the cold morning's air deep into her lungs and shudder as a chill crosses her skin, and she leans over the railing and closes her eyes. A little wind stirs her hair and brushes the cold against her damp face.

"You feel better," Hiei states. She heard him land on the railing next to her, so she's not surprised. Instead, she sits up and look at him and smile hugely.

"Kurama's tea kicks ass," she declares."I think I have breakfast left over. You want some? My food's weird compared to here's, I guess, but you're from demon world. What do you eat, anyway?"

He gets a feral look in his face, and she already knows the answer, so she says it with him. "Meat."

"Good shit," she agrees, skipping merrily back into the kitchen. Hiei freezes when he sees her skipping, and he gets the most blatant "what the fuck" face she's ever seen on anyone, let alone inexpressive Hiei.

"Whatever he gave you, he's not giving you ever again," Hiei decides out loud before he follows her into the kitchen.

"Thbt, I'll kill someone else if I get to feel this good about it," she says airily. "I hardly even remember the whole week. Hell, I hardly remember killing him. I know who he was, though. And I've got a scar from him, so I'll always remember. I can only hope this isn't temporary. It's like... I wasn't there. I read about it in a book, and my imagination was good, that evening."

"You talk too much when you're in a good mood."

"I talk too much when I'm scared, too. In fact, if you're considering 'too much' to be more than you, then there's no way to not talk too much."

She scratches her head while for a second, trying to remember what she was up to, then remembers and puts the leftover pancakes on a plate for him. She puts syrup on the plate herself, and then she goes back to cleaning the kitchen.

"What the hell is it?"

"It's a pancake."

"How do I eat it?"

"Well, depends. Did I get syrup on it or the plate?"

"On the plate."

"Then pick it up, roll it up, and eat it that way."

He looks puzzled at it for a second, until she picks it up and rolls it up for him, then holds it out to him.

"My hands are clean," she assures him after he gives her a look like, 'ew'. Funny look on his face. But he takes it. She turns to start doing the dishes. "Don't eat too fast, or you'll get the hiccups," she warns over her shoulder.

Too late. She hears a "Hic!" as Hiei gives an adorable hiccup. She turns just in time to see the blank, open-mouthed look of "what the hell was that?" on his face, but suddenly, he hides his face, trying to keep the shade of pink he's turning hidden.

"That was So CUTE!" she giggles maniacally. A knock on the door scares Hiei away, but she hears him hiccup on the balcony, and she giggles again.

Kurama greets her at the door and he smiles when he sees the dumbass grin on her face.

"Ah, good, it's working. What was it you were declaring is cute?"

"Hiei has the hiccups!" she giggles excitedly.

Kurama puts his thumb in his mouth to keep himself from smiling too wide, and she giggles again. She's already sick of herself, but Kurama seems delighted at her behavior.

"I'm going t -hic!- to kill you, Healer," Hiei spits. She can't stifle the cackle, and she nearly falls down. He blushes even more and growls despite. She laughs more when his hiccupping interrupts the growl.

After a fully minute of nearly falling down laughing, she finally recovers back to the giggling like a maniac. "Oh, come here, I'll fix it," she finally offers comfortingly as he starts to open his mouth to yell at her.

He comes off the balcony and hiccups again, and Kurama turns his back and tucks his head down farther to hide the laughter. She walks over to Hiei and launches into a flying hug. He isn't expecting it, and he's in a doorway, so he can't dodge properly, so she catches him around the neck, and she grins. "Oh, HIEI!" she adds when he doesn't immediately throw her.

"LET GO OF ME!" he roars. He as good as picks himself off the ground and puts his feet on her to kick off and knock her backwards. He stands there and he glares for a minute.

Me'ran continues to giggle. "Sorry, Hiei. But your hiccups are gone, aren't they?"

"That's." He pauses. They're gone, they are, and he can't argue with that.

"Clever," Kurama says with a weak smile. "I think you should have left him with them, personally."

"I should have," she agrees. "But that'd be cruel."

Hiei's gone already. He decided to not kill her, and he's gone, now.

"That was easy."

"Were you trying to get rid of him?"

"Yeah," she says with a smile. "He bugs me. Dunno why he's stalking me, especially considering that he whines about having to."

Kurama chuckles a little, but he sounds nervous. She looks at him and cocks her head to a side. "Kurama?"

"Yes?"

"Uh." She wants to ask him why he wasn't going to tell her, but that would let him know she knew. Well. Then again... "Whatever you weren't going to tell me; I'm not asking what it is, but I'm curious. Why not?"

She sees a pained smile cross his face, and she scowls. Oh, she was right. It was because she thought he was creepy. Or maybe because he's afraid she won't like him back.

"There are some things I'd rather keep to myself," he finally says. Then he smiles a little. "I was unaware that Hiei could hiccup. Or that he was ticklish. If you keep this up, he's going to kill us all just so no one will remember."

"That was the cutest hiccup I've ever seen," she seconds. "You wanna finish off the pancakes? I'm done eating."

"Pancakes?"

"I cooked them all the time."

"Oh, those." He shakes his head. "Unfortunately, I think Hiei's digestive system is the only one that can make such a jump, and I will honestly be surprised if it succeeds in doing so without at least mild nausea for him. I'm rather too familiar with Japanese food. American food is unusual."

"Heh. And you guys eat pickles for breakfast. Don't call me unusual," she answers with a grin. "Get outta here, I gotta clean up."

Kurama smiles, then bows out of the door hurriedly. She grins and starts cleaning, starting to sing loudly as she goes.


	20. Bad Day

_Bad Day_

"Alright, alright, so we're going for... what?" Me'ran asks Yuusuke. He dropped by a little after two or so in the afternoon. He wants to go somewhere, but she forgot where.

"I've never met a chick I could fight," Yuusuke says with a grin. "I want to go fight."

"With me? We tried that, remember? You kicked my ass."

"We were cramped, you couldn't get your real style in, like with Touka or the big guy we brought down for your first test."

He leads her out to a field, and he lets her take her spot about fifteen feet away from him, and he lets her go first.

This ends... well.

"AAAAGH!" Yuusuke screams, holding his ass and half-hopping, half running away.

"Oh, god, Yuusuke, I'm sorry!" Me'ran cries, fighting the giggle and covering her mouth. Her knee still hurts, but he's feeling it much more than she is.

"What the hell did you just do?!" he shrieks, trying to look at his ass and yelping in pain.

"I... haha... hahahaha..."

"QUIT WITH THE CREEPY LAUGHING AND TELL ME WHAT YOU DID!"

"I... I... Haha... I cracked your ass bone."

"... ... ... ... There's no way I'm letting you heal that."

"Well, it's not that bad, really. You can live with it. Besides, it's higher up than you think," she says lightly. "I've broken mine before." He turns around and he tries to look at his ass, but she holds him still and puts her hand on his lower back. He jumps, and she giggles a little, then heals his ass bone (or coccyx).

"Oh, god. Keiko'd kill me if she saw that," Yuusuke says as he turns a very nice shade of red.

"If it makes you feel any better, she'd probably go for me, first," she answers shyly, taking her hand out of the waistband of his underwear. She doesn't even want to know what her hand smells like, now.

Then Yuusuke checks his watch, and starts running. "Aw, hell," he mumbles as he takes off. Then she doesn't see him anymore.

"W... What?"

He's gone already. So she turns on her toes and starts meandering home.

A soft voice sounds, and she looks for the source. Then she shrugs it off and starts to move, and there's something in the way. Six or seven demons, actually. She jumps a little and stands completely upright.

"Aah," she murmurs quietly in a near whisper, stepping back.

"Yeah," someone says from behind her. She suddenly realizes that she's surrounded. And she freezes and holds completely still.

Someone lunges for her, and so does everyone else, and she jumps into the air and lands outside the circle. Then a knock to the side of the head knocks her blind for an instant, and she hits ground before she knows it.

"Ow," she barks. Then there's an impact in her ribs, under her breasts, in the solar plexus. She slides backwards, and she leans on her knees and looks up. Then her hand twitches and she catches the third attack, and she uses it to get to her feet and then she starts to fight back. She swings her leg up to kick three, and she kicks two and knocks them sideways, but the third catches her leg and slings her to the ground. Another one drags her up by the arm and punches her right in the chest. He keeps a hold on her and lets the others use her as a punching bag until she finally swings herself up and kicks him in the face. He drops her and staggers back, and someone kicks her away from him. She collides with a tree in mid-flight and slides to her ass at the base of it. She sits there and tries to recover. No one has attacked her since she sat down, so she figures they're done.

"Definitely not a normal human," someone says.

She thinks about getting up and kicking someone's ass, but as she starts to move, she realizes that she's not breathing right, and it's going to be a bitch for a second. So she decides to wait. However, while she's down, she's planning what she's going to do with that green bi-pedal wolf.

She finally gets to her feet, and someone kicks her in the stomach and knocks her sprawling, then someone kicks her in the side onto her front and stomps on her back, making it pop painfully. She gets onto her hands and knees and forces herself upright, and she presses her back to the tree. Someone grabs her hair and throws her, and someone else kicks her. She hits ground, but she sits right back up and watches them for their next attacks.

"STOP HITTING ME!" she roars angrily, getting pissed off. Mostly because they're kicking her ass. It doesn't hurt, but it is a blow to the pride. One of them kicks her again, probably just to piss her off some more. She gets up and punches him in the chest, and then kicks a second one that's coming at her in the face at the same time she grabs a third and swing him by the leg into three more, knocking all of them skidding.

But then the first one catches up to her and tries to hit her. She blocks it, but she slides, and then another kick into her head knocks her off her feet, into the air a bit, before she hits ground and fall back yet again. That one hurt. But she sits up again anyway, and holds her head.

"What the hell is she?!" one demands.

"Fuck you guys," she growls, sitting on her knees. They're not trying to kill her. She's not sure why not, but they're not. She can taste blood, and she runs her tongue around the inside of her mouth to find the source, and she decides that she accidentally bit her cheek or something when one of them hit her in the head.

The demons all step back, and she lets her head down and swears quietly before she gets back up.

"She's got to be made of something tough. I kicked her guts and my foot hurts."

"Why... Fucking... Hiei."

She gets it, now. They were trying to cause damage. That's why they went after her body, not her face. They were trying to kill her, and they're talking about how tough she is. Someone sent them to test out the Indestructible thing. And Hiei is the only one that gives this much of a shit, and has this much influence.

Someone kicks her again, probably to see if it hurts, but she just rolls onto her back. Anger bubbles a bit, and, suddenly, she feels warm and stronger, and she gets back up.

"So, your trigger is anger, too, is it? Or is it pain? Do you even feel pain?" Hiei's voice sounds colder than anything she's ever heard before. She feels the burning in her chest that she knows to be rage, and the warmth and strength that's surrounding her grows. Hiei smirks. "Ah, it's anger. I always wondered what you looked like when you were angry. Your energy is naturally scarlet; not that green bullshit that Healing turns it. I knew you weren't a green person. You never struck me as very red, though."

The demons around her all step back and disappear, one by one, and she's left hacking quietly in her attempt to breathe.

"Testing... me...?" she asks. She's thinking about hurting him, but she wants to lick her wounds, first. She doesn't give herself long to do so. He drops from the tree and lands in front of her. So the next move she makes is natural. She pulls her hand back and thrust the heel of her hand forward to hit him right in the face. He stumbles, but he looks pleased.

"You really are surprising," he says. "I want to fight you where you have your power. You can already damage the Detective, albeit accidentally, when months ago you were straining to get on the roof of your school. But I have yet to see you tested, and I wanted to see if I could use you. I already know I can beat you."

"You must have the magic ability to just ruin any good day, huh," she whines, looking at the fist print on her chest.

"You should have a broken bone. Even you indestructible ones break, now and again. And I really do want to know- do you feel pain?"

Me'ran glares at Hiei, who is still looking smug, and she rushes at him again. She tries to hit him in the head, but he catches her fist, and he draws his sword. She doesn't back away, and she swings at him again. He swings at her, but she doesn't even really see it. Her reflexes take over and she ducks it, though it knicks her shoulder and a bit of hair, and immediately afterwards, she strikes him in his chest hard enough that it makes him step back.

"Scared?" he teases as she moves back.

"You wish," she answers stubbornly. He takes another swing, but she leans back, dodging his sword enough to get out of being decapitated. Even so, the blade gets flesh, this time. The artery in her neck is split a little, a scratch at best, but that's all it takes. Blood shoots nearly six feet out of it. Her hand shoots to the gash, and Hiei rubs the bit that got him in the eye off with his wrist, but he steps back and watches her, probably watching to see if she's going to die.

"HIEI!" a stranger's voice barks. Me'ran doesn't know who it is until she looks and sees Kurama's bright red hair. She's half happy he showed up, but the other half still wants to kill Hiei, so she's mad at him for being here, too. She decides to go ahead and takes her blows out on Hiei, but Kurama's got a grip on her arm and keeps her from moving for a second. Then he moves in front of her.

Hiei freezes as Kurama moves forward, and he looks amazed at him and sort of grins.

"I wasn't going to hurt her badly. I just wanted to see how much she bleeds. If she passed out, I was going to take her to a human healer."

She takes her hand away from her wound to see how much blood there is still coming out, but there's not a whole lot. Not even on her hand- the shit there's half-dry. But he got my neck. The artery in my neck, and I know where the hell that is. I should be bleeding out, and it looks like a cat scratch!

Hiei must see this, and his face lights up with a malicious grin. "You don't even bleed! Even demons bleed!" Hiei crows. "You don't feel pain, you don't bleed, and you can't die! It's a shame you won't fight, you'd be the perfect warrior." Me'ran starts for him, but Kurama seizes her arm again and keeps his hold, and he stays in front of her.

"HIEI!" Kurama barks again.

"Back off, Kurama," she half-whispers. "That's a dumbass place for you to be. He's right, and I'm going home, now."

She turns and starts stalking off, getting pissed off at her own blood for not flowing, and she hears Hiei calling after her.

"You want to hurt me, and you run no risk whatsoever of even suffering great injury, and you're satisfied to walk away?!" he challenges. The rage is getting harder to swallow, so she finally chews it over in her mind until it becomes words. She jerks her arm to shed Kurama's grip on her, but as she turns, he seizes both her arms and holds her back.

"IT'S WHAT MAKES ME A GOOD FUCKING PERSON! IT KEEPS ME FROM BEING A MONSTER LIKE YOU! IT'S NO FUCKING WONDER NO ONE WANTS YOU NEAR THEM, YOU'RE AN EVIL FUCKING BASTARD!"

This strikes a nerve. He stiffens, and he twitches twice to go for her, but he doesn't move from that spot.

Kurama pulls more firmly on her arm, and she allows him to pull her back and she starts walking ahead of him to her house. The bruises on her ribs and gut hurt as her breathing gets harder, and she allows more and more rage at Hiei to build while her mind listens to him repeat "So that's what you look like when you're angry" at her over and over again.

"You got your blow in," Kurama says comfortingly. "He didn't show it, but what you said did bother him."

"I saw it, that fucking mother fucker, and I wish I knew what the fuck his problem was, because that's just fucking SHITTY."

"Please, relax, Me'ran."

_"Bite my balls, Kurama!"_ she shouts in English. He doesn't know what that means, so he doesn't say anything.

Once they get back to town, she tears away from him and storms toward her apartment, not even paying attention to anyone looking funny at her for the lumps and blood on her face and neck.

"Me'ran--"

"Fuck off."

"Don't let him--"

She runs what she's going to say through her head, making sure to switch his names, and languages, so that no one else will understand her. Then she waits until she's somewhere there are fewer people, and between breaks in the wall along the sidewalk. Then she turns so suddenly that he jumps and she pushes him into the wall along the sidewalk and puts her thumb into the dip in the front of his collarbone, cutting off his air and whatever he was in the middle of saying. He seizes her wrist, but she locks her other fingers into the painful spot behind his collarbone and hooks them in so her hand won't move anymore, and it causes a little additional pain when he tries to pull her hand away.

"MINAMINO! Stop. Following. Me. Stop. Talking to me. I'm going to be bugged by this, I've just gotten over guilt for murdering someone, don't make me do it again. I'm going home, I'm going to clean the blood off my neck, change my shirt so the footprints aren't visible, and I'm going to my building to throw things around and curse Hiei's name into the ground. Fuck off."

A bright red light is obscuring her vision, for some reason. I thought seeing red was a figure of speech, she jokes darkly.

She stands for a second, watching him to make sure her words sink in. His face changes slowly from one of determination to silent submission, and she eases the pressure off her thumb, first, and then her fingers, and she steps back.

"Me'ran," he begins to say, but whatever he wants to say drops off. His green eyes have a strange look, a cross of fear and surprise and pain, lurking behind them. She feels rather guilty for making him make that face, but she pays it no heed. She's too angry to care.

He takes a deep breath as she lets her hand down, and she walks away, ignoring anything anyone has to say to her. She's distantly aware of the people from school rushing to Kurama, demanding to know what happened between them. If nothing else, they'll keep him from following her for long enough to escape. Someone calls after her.

"HEY! ERUFIB!"

She starts running, until she gets to her apartment complex, and she starts jumping up the stairway until she gets to her floor, and she runs inside to her room and she slams the door carefully to not break anything.

_"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck," _she chants, falling back to English to do so.

"Meruran-kun?" Keiko calls, knocking on the door. She's already in the bathroom naked to the waist. "I saw you running and you slammed the door. Is everything alright?"

Her first instinct is to scream "Fuck off!" but she doesn't. Instead, she settles for, "I'm fine. Go away." She's polite, and that's Yuusuke's girlfriend. Having her mad at she would be a bad idea.

"Are you sure?"

"Please go away?" she demands, scrubbing at her neck, making it bleed again, but she puts the rag over it and waits for it to stop.

"A-alright..."

She checks to see if the bleeding's stopped, yet, and she continues wiping off the blood. She hears him land on her balcony, and she puts her bra back on and goes to her bedroom to pull on a black t-shirt, in case she starts bleeding again.

"Get out of here," she spits once she gets her shirt over her head. "I am in no mood."

He's standing in her bedroom with his hands jammed in his pockets and staring at her. "I was not testing you for my own causes. They wanted to test you themselves. We were making sure that I wasn't going to get you killed fifteen minutes into the expedition."

She pushes him back against the wall harder than he expects, and his head hits, and he makes a weird face, a demonic look of smugness, almost a grin. She does the same thing to him that she did to Kurama a second ago, pushing her thumb into the dip in the front of his collarbone and hooking her fingers into the hole behind it.

He makes a choked-off sound, and he fights with her hand, but her freshly clipped-to-points nails dig into the flesh in that pressure point behind his collarbone, and she catches his other wrist and holds his arm still, keeping it from hitting her.

Contrary to her expectations, he grins, and he kicks her in the shin, then forces her back with a push-kick to her chest.

"I'm impressed. I didn't think you were capable of that brutality," he says with a dark smile. She growls at him and braces herself for a fight.

"Get the fuck out of here," she growls deep in her throat.

"Hn. Go to bed early," is all he says in response. "And tame that energy before you bring attention to yourself, the last thing anyone wants is some psychotic demon gnawing on their arm, and the last thing I want is to explain what the hell happened."

And the last she sees of him is when he hops off the balcony and vanishes from sight.


	21. Now What?

Hello again, dears. Zigg, dear, if you paid attention, (just picking) you would have noticed that I included translations on the bottom of the first chapter, in the subnotes. I probably missed doing that in the second chapter, but I probably got lazy. I do that.

Oh, yeah, hello everyone else, Kagome, being the ever constant, and I'm getting to see more of you! Hello! wave I know there are at least ten more of you that read my shit, or that have read my shit, and I want comments! If you wanna drop it, if you did drop it, then why? Come on, I'm not getting very much cooperation here, everyone likes to be told what kind of job they're doing!

Oh, yeah. And, so, I didn't have Microsoft word until yesterday (I've been using wordpad, which doesn't have a spell checker), so a lot of my grammar and spelling should be better. (I did SO badly, before, but that was hand-editing, it's really hard to not miss anything. The transition from "you" to "she" was a bitch!) Why the hell didn't you lot tell me that shit was that bad off??? Gah!

Keep reading, keep reviewing, thanks as always, throws in the rest of the usual polite shit and I'll talk to later. Saijonara.

-R.F.

* * *

_Now What?_

He leaves her alone for the rest of the night. She retreats to the condemned building for a few hours, storming around, throwing shit, cussing Hiei and Kurama. It doesn't even occur to her why Hiei's little cronies would want to test her, too. She assumed he was lying. So she's busy practicing punching holes in bricks every now and then. It's more satisfying than when she was normal and she just hurt her fist. The crumbling rocks make a great sound, and she listens to them fall down the stairs and echo throughout the building.

Before too long, her rage has subsided, and she's no longer eager to attack whoever happens to cross her path. After a bit more relaxation to get herself fully back, and to tame the red flares around her, she starts down the stairs to the first floor, and she crawls out the window with the big enough crack in the boards, and she starts back home.

Once home, she eats, but the rest of the day, the happy feeling of the tea in her system, combined with getting some of that rage out of her system leaves her feeling pretty good, and through the rest of the day, she stays inside or on her balcony and play around, until late evening, when she lies down for a nap and sleeps the most soundly she has in a long time.

Until she gets a kick to the ribs.

WHUMP

"URGH."

"Not so loud, idiot, you'll disturb the neighbors."

"I'd be quieter if you hadn't kicked me."

"Shut up and get up."

"You know, I'll be more inclined to help you if you're less of an asshole," Me'ran growls, reaching under her bed to pull her bra on and dragging her quilt with her to her drawers in the closet to pull her pants and a shirt back on. Another black t-shirt. She half-remembers why she's so easygoing with this. He said he was going to need her help, not long ago. That's why they were testing her, yesterday.

"Wear something white so you don't scare--"

"I'm pale enough to glow in the dark. Shut up."

He waits 'til she's dressed, and he holds out her first aid kits (She got a second one for her other leg as a gift after she got here.) and he lets her strap those to her legs.

"Are you going to wear your glasses? You didn't, last time."

"I see better in the dark without them," she says after a bit of thought. But she puts them in one of the first aid kits, anyway, and she ties her hair back, then lets Hiei grab her wrist and pull her through the streets of the city until they get well out of town, and into the woods she was ambushed in.

"Why'd we wait this long? You wanted to go a few days ago."

"I had to wait for a portal. Timespace doesn't always agree with the schedules of demon kind."

As she walks, she spots the demons, one by one, that attacked her earlier that day.

"Hardly a mark. She'd better be worth running the risk, Hiei. If she gets us caught--"

"That house has been empty for centuries before you were even born."

"That's a foolish standpoint, Jaganshi."

"'Jaganshi'?" she echoes, quirking an eyebrow.

"Shut up."

One of the demons laughs. "Doesn't she know?"

"Of course not," Hiei barks, glaring. She laughs quietly, and shakes her head.

"I couldn't care less. Hiei, I'm going home."

"No you're not," he answers, seizing her wrist and pushing her through a black hole that appeared in the air.

She pauses long enough to breathe again and tame herself before she elbows Hiei in the head. The demons around them laugh, and she punches another one in the stomach before she kicks off the non-ground and lets herself float through the weird place. She doesn't have to touch the ground, and she gets to this weird spot about halfway through.

The weird spot looks like a weird net. She looks at it confusedly for a second. She tries to move through it, but something about it doesn't let her. So, instead, she turns long ways and dives through a slat head-first. She gets through easily, and she starts to keep going.

"Healer!" Hiei barks.

"I have a name," she answers, skidding to a halt and walking back to the tangled-fishnet-thing. He and two others are standing on the other side, and all three are staring her down. Hiei's got his arms crossed.

"I know that, and until I decide I like your name better than your title, you're going to have to deal with it. You're going to have to break this thing."

"I can't," she informs him tersely. "It bends when I pull at it, but I don't have the strength to break it." She moves herself back through it, slipping through headfirst again. Hiei sighs a little, and he opens his mouth, but then she braces her feet on the bottom of the hole-thing and her back against the top of it, and she stretches and bends until the hole is open enough for all of them to get through.

"Good enough," Hiei mumbles, no longer looking annoyed. He tests out the area she's opened up with an extended hand, and looks satisfied. "We can't touch that thing," he explains while the three of them slip through the hole she's made. "Even the other demons can't even touch it quite the way you can- they go through it like a hand through steam."

"Ah," she grunts. She goes back to flying through the pseudo space towards a light that she can see.

Hiei grabs her arm and apparently has hold of something else when she gets through to the other side of the pseudo space. It's nighttime here, and the sky is deeper black than anything she's ever seen. There are stars here, too, and clouds, and she can see a moon, but it's deep red. There are trees below her, too.

She's hit with the air and smell here, and she feels a smile form across her face. Something about this place just seems so much... better than at home. It gives her the chills, but at the same time, it's wonderful. It smells like blood and corpse and water and plants and life and...

"What's with that smile, Healer?" Hiei demands snidely.

"I like this place," she says as her feet touchdown. The guy that was flying lands a little ahead of her, and he starts walking, leading the way. Hiei follows him, and she follows Hiei.

"Hn. Maybe I can leave you here."

"When I get stronger, sure," she answers, smiling again. "There's something about this place that gives me the creeps, but I'm really liking the whole... it's beautiful."

Hiei laughs quietly, and so do a couple of the other demons that hear her. They stop walking, but Hiei keeps moving. She follows Hiei, but when she gets on the other side of the demons, she sees it.

It's a castle. Or a mansion. Or some cross-breed of the two. Hiei moves to the front stoop and points.

"You first."

"You demons are impossible to kill, and you're sending the human first?"

"You're wrong on one count. We're possible to kill. You, on the other hand, are not. Every demon that's stepped up on this thing has died, and no one knows why."

She sighs and steps up onto the porch and look around, and she walks up to the door. Her arms move before she realizes it, and she looks to see why. She's holding something invisible back and it's putting up quite a fight.

"Okay. Found one. Something just tried to squash me like a bug, literally," she whines quietly, pushing one back until it breaks and leaving the other one there. She leans down to close the first aid kit on her leg (it opened due to the sudden impact jarring her whole body).

Hiei moves up onto the porch cautiously, and the other demons follow him, one by one. She touches the door with her fingertips, lightly. She saw Home Alone too many times to just grab the doorknob. Great lot of good it does. Her body is jolted by something painful, and every muscle tenses and her back begins to arch backwards as her instincts pull her away from it. Then, just as suddenly as it began, it stops, and she collapses to her knees in front of the door. "Aaaagh," she whimpers, but she gets to her feet easily, ignoring the grunts and whispers and chuckles behind her. She pushes the door open as she gets to her feet. She moves into the room, but as soon as her foot gets in, she starts falling. Hiei catches her wrist and swings her over the hole and jumps across himself after she determines that the ground isn't going to try to kill them.

"You realize there is no way I'm going to be able to take care of twelve demons, right, Hiei?"

"Why not?"

"I'm still new at this," she tells him. "We're going this way, right?"

Hiei nods and she leads the way up a set of stairs. Every other one is a trick stair, and she discovers this shortly after Hiei catches the guy-behind-him's arm to keep him from falling through. It's not such a bitch going up, but coming down's gonna be ugly.

She gets through the doorway that Hiei says leads to the vault, and she looks around. The windows are boarded shut, and it's very dark all through here. She's just waiting for some sort of ambush.

Three of the demons, including Hiei, don't wait for her to get through the hallway. How wise of the ones that stayed back. Once she gets halfway through, a sound and motion to her right scares the shit out of her, and she releases a startled scream just before a pair of teeth sink painfully into her arm. It latches on, and she swings hers into the boarded window, putting it through, and she knocks it hard on the sill until it releases her arm and falls. Moonlight streams in, and after she moves out of the light, she can see a little better. One of the demons is hurt, curled on the ground with his arms over his belly. There were eight of them against the four of them, and the one that is injured has two more to deal with. She punts one through another window, and she stomps hard on the remaining one and puts it through the floor, creating a hole about the size of a soccer ball. Hiei kills three of them, and the other two deal with their own.

"Asano's wounded. The shouakki got him," Hiei says matter-of-factly as he gestures to the demon on the floor. Me'ran pulls Asano into the window with the moonlight and she can see that he's missing a large chunk of his side. He's moaning in pain and whimpering. She checks for signs of shock, but he seems to be alright, other than the bleeding hole. He whimpers and clutches at his side, and she pulls his hand away.

"You're not that bad off," she argues, patting him roughly on the head. "You're just bleeding a lot. Give me a minute."

She's lying, but only a little. There are pieces of his intestines that were opened, so she reaches into one of the bigger wounds, pushing the intestine back in and healing it at the same time. He cries out in pain, but then he stops when she starts healing the bites.

"Ah, ah, ah, my lady," he grunts. "Thank you."

"Let go of my wrist so I can get this done with," she demands imperatively. He'd grabbed her wrist when she was pushing her fingers into the hole in his gut. He lets go, and she withdraws. He gets up slowly, then bows to her again, and he follows her the rest of the way down the hall.

When she gets another quarter of the way through, the rest of them are starting to catch up, and she hears someone scream and she looks back to see that something has fallen from the ceiling onto them. She runs over and catches the head of the net, and she rolls/flips it over so that it hits the wall and crumples to the floor harmlessly. Someone in the back helps her. She looks and sees that the net had six-inch pins and needles sticking out of it, and she scowls. "I understand wanting to kill people, but ow," she whines, looking at her hands and wiping them off on her pants. There's no blood, but it stings like hell.

It takes two more traps to reach the end of the hall. They're triggered by Me'ran, so she catches them, but she managed to get a pretty good knock to the head (one of them was a swinging hammer), and the other one broke and failed to hurt anyone, even her.

"See, I told you I'd need your help," Hiei says, giving Me'ran a sidelong leer.

"For someone that arrogant, you're awful proud to be right about predicting your need for help," she answers, looking down at him.

He crosses his arms, but he doesn't say anything, and she gets to the end of the hall. Hiei slices the lock off the vault, and he starts for it, but she catches his arm.

"It's empty. And it's probably booby-trapped as hell."

He pries it open, and she has to pull his arm away as something really heavy falls for it. Then she lets him go back to prying the door open. That was far too easy. She starts back through the hallway, ducking two sets of flying daggers (Jeez, did this guy grow up on Indiana Jones?) and going back through the door. She gets through to the second door, and she feels a tug at her ankle, and she hears a loud noise and feels the impact of herself hitting the floor. She doesn't even get a chance to cry out.

"OW!" she finally says when she sits back up.

"Hiei, I think your healer just blew up," someone reports.

"No, the healer didn't blow up, something else did, and it tried to get her," she whines, kicking the remnants of the bucket in which the explosives were once stored and pulling a bit of shrapnel out of her leg.

"Can you still walk?" Hiei calls.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Split up, I'll follow cries of pain. Make sure to scream loudly enough for me to hear, and remember that I'm human and I just had a very loud bomb go off near me, so I'm mildly deaf," she finally grumbles. "My name's Me'ran, and if you want me to check something out before you find it the fun way, call me."

She perches on one of the not-trick steps and wait. One by one, then two by two, and finally the remaining five of them separate and start searching through the house.

* * *

She gets blown up three times, she gets two holes punched in her arms, and she winds up with shrapnel all up one side of her body. 

However, she also disables eight traps, finds twenty-seven more, heals twelve demons sixteen times, and manages to save all of their lives at least once, not including Hiei. He's managed to go long enough without getting hurt.

Whatever they're looking for is all split up all over the house. Eventually, they all gather back into the hall and dump whatever they don't want. There's a lot more treasure than she thought there was going to be. Hiei told her a little bit about there being some, but he doesn't say anything about it to explain.

"Is that everything?" someone asks. They all seem to agree, but Hiei doesn't. She's perched on the steps, so she's not sure what they're doing. She thinks it's like kids at Halloween, picking out what they don't want and trading for what they do. Hiei walks over and holds his hand out at her.

"They wanted to thank you."

She lets him dump it into her hand, and she looks at it and runs her thumb over it. It's too dark to see exactly what it is, so she picks it up and holds it, trying to feel it out.

"It's an earring. You only have the one."

"Oh."

"It doesn't match your other one, but it's the same color as your eyes, and it'll offer a little magical protection, though you don't need it," he explains. "I've got to keep looking," he adds, going through a door she didn't notice under the stairs.

She follows him down the stairs and through the door. It's even darker down here than it is through the rest of the house. It's cold down here, too.

"Shit," she mumbles when she steps on what has to be the eighth millionth thing in the floor. She's hoping that they're not the bones they feel like.

"Why are you following me?"

"I'm the healer, and there will be no injuring to them until someone starts a fight, and they seem to be decently close allies."

"Haven't you heard the term, 'no honor amongst thieves'?"

"Yep, and I know the term "thick as thieves", too. More familiar with that one."

He snorts.

The pair of them continue walking through the blackness. What light there is reflects off the cowl, and she follows its motion through the dark.

Then she hears him fall and sees the cowl drop. She starts to move for him, until she feels an impact to her right and staggers until her feet catch something and she falls. Whatever she landed on hurts the shit out of her knee, hip, elbow, shoulder, and palm. She turns to see there's a green glowing there, and she gasps and tries to move away from it. She hits something and she nearly falls over it. The green glowing gets closer to her, and she realizes it's alive. She pushes it back, and then she feels Hiei brush past her, and then she hears its death gurgle.

"It's ahead," Hiei says. She starts to move again, and she realizes that she's hurt. She hears herself limping more than she feels or sees it. She doesn't even think to be concerned about it, but then she realizes how much farther ahead of her Hiei is than he was before. She starts to call out to him, but hands close around her throat, and she never minds calling out and just screams.

"AAGH!"

Hiei's footsteps vanish, and the thing throws her forward. She falls over something and crawls away, and she hears and sees the sword that is knocked out of Hiei's hands. She picks it up. She doesn't have time to think too much on it. She can't toss it to Hiei. Even if he can see it, he's probably busy. Plus, it's easier to see the glowing green thing, and all she has to do is make sure that she goes right at the green thing.

She puts the blade into the thing's green thing, and it shrieks and disappears, and the resistance on the blade is gone. It was a spell... It wasn't alive at all; it was a guardian of whatever's down here. That green-thing was the center.

"Hiei, are you alright?" she asks quickly, searching the dark in the place she saw him fall. He's... There! The white stands out in the dark, but it doesn't move. "Hiei?"

He's still not getting up, so she reaches down and touches at the cowl and follows his shoulder by feel and she helps him sit up, and he grabs her arm and he uses it to pull him up.

"You're hurt," her mouth mumbles before she pays attention. She's not sure if she's asking him or telling him. She can't see anything, but she smells pain and blood, and she felt it in his grip.

"You're hurt worse," he tells her.

"I don't feel it," she responds truthfully.

"Neither do I."

She stumbles through the dark. He makes a move and she hears something, and then he turns around and starts heading back the way they came from. She follows him.

"You got it?" she asks.

"Yes."

She can't see his hand in the dark, so she asks, "What is it?"

"None of your business," he answers, leading her up the stairs. She slips in something as she follows him. The smell wafts up to her as she nearly falls over it. It's blood.

"Hiei?" she asks.

He grunts quietly before collapsing at the top of the stairs. She runs up to catch him before he hits the ground, and she puts his arm over her shoulder. Two or three of the demons are still in the floor negotiating, but they don't pay any attention to them as Me'ran help Hiei out the door.

She realizes how hurt he is when she gets him outside. It's nearly dawn, so the rising sun's letting her see how much blood there is. She pulls the back of his cloak open to see the wound.

There's an axe-head in it. He fell on it, if she had to guess. If the monster had swung it at him, it would have gone much farther in.

"You're hurt pretty bad," she tells him quietly. He glares at her. She smiles nervously. "Shut up and brace yourself, this is gonna hurt."

She takes hold on the back edge of the axe and she pulls, but her hands slide right off. Hiei makes a soft pained sound and tries to move away. She stops a second, and she moves to a different position, sitting next to him with her front facing his side. She puts one foot between his legs and the other behind him, sort of pinning him between her knees. He looks at her, but she puts her hand on his chest to hold him still, and she pushes her fingers into the flesh and she takes a better hold and she jerks her hand and arm back, hard. He turns and slugs her, and her head hits the wall behind her. Her head's fuzzy, and she's dizzy and in pain, now, but she got the axe out. He turns back around with a dark look on his face.

"Fucking Healer, warn me next time," he spits angrily.

"I had a feeling that you wouldn't have resisted the first time I tried if you needed a warning," she groans in return.

She puts his cloak over the bleeding spot and wait for the bleeding to stop. She pulls up her pants legs with her free hand and opens her kit and pulls out the needle and thread and medical tape and gauze, and she checks to see if the bleeding's stopped. It has. She pulls his cloak back and she starts to sew the hole shut. His lack of noise lets her know that he's passed out, or being really stoic.

Then she puts her hand over the sewn-shut wound. She's weak, already, and she knows it, so she heals the bone damage, first, then start working on the necessary muscles.

"You're going to have to deal with the stitches. I won't be able to heal this completely," she says apologetically while she weaves the muscles over his ribcage back into place.

She's so deep in concentration that she doesn't realize that she's beginning to collapse until after she hits the wall. Her concentration finally begins to fall, so she tapes the gauze over the stitches and lets herself fall onto the grass.

"Me...'ran..." Hiei asks. He sounds worried. She allows a feeling of triumph--he used her name.

Dammit, I don't want to make a noise... can I even do it..? Her voice hisses a second until she finally makes her lungs use enough air to go "hgn" at him.

She looks up at him, but she can't see his face. He's still slumped forward, so she pushes him lightly backwards until he hits the wall behind him. His eyes open. He looks at her and he smirks.

"You're alright," she tells him after fighting with her voice. "Just don't move too much for a bit," she adds. "I'm... going to need... a nap."

She tries to move to sit up, but he puts his hand firmly on her arm.

"I can't carry you. Sleep here," he commands. She shrugs.

"Sounds good." And she closes her eyes, and she's out in seconds.


	22. Oh

_Oh._

Her eyes open, and she feels grass under her head, and she's lost and confused. It's either sunrise or dusk, so she's either slept twelve hours or ten minutes. The dawn was at her feet, which are folded behind her, and the sun is now over the trees in her face, so now she knows. Dusk. She's been asleep twelve hours.

She moves her head and tests out the rest of her body. She's stiff from being on the ground, and she's still a little sleepy, and her head aches a bit.

"Me'ran," Hiei's voice half-whispers as he comes to.

"Huh?" she asks, picking her head up and letting her jaw slack before she yawns hugely.

"You're alive." He sounds surprised. She wonders where the surprise came from. She tries to get offended, but she just doesn't care this early in the "morning."

"Can't die, rimmber?" she yawns. She decides it's time to sit up, and she wriggles a little to put her hands down and fix her legs to make it easy for her to stand up. She's not that wounded, from what she can tell.

She sits up, then starts to stand, and she sits back down because of an intense ache in her leg. So she decides to stretch a little, first, and she finds another pain in her arm. She moves her pants leg back to look at her leg, and she looks at her arm. Bruises. Big ones, deep, but no worries. Gashes and holes and scrapes, too, but no blood, just scabs. She will need a bath when she gets home, though.

"You're still wounded?" Hiei asks.

"Am I?" she asks in return, still looking over herself. She twists wrong, and cries out in pain and falls back into the grass. "Aaa-aaa-aa-aaaah!"

Hiei laughs a little. "You do feel pain."

"Hey, that's not funny, I could be broken! And of course I feel pain!"

"You're not. You as good as carried me out here last night. You're fine. Did you heal me last night?"

"Yeah, yeah. Completely as I could. You oughtta have been left with the stitches, and you're a demon, so I don't know if it's closed yet, or not. I think that one was the only ugly one."

He looks himself over, looks satisfied, then fixes his cloak back over himself. "Whole," he confirms, sounding reluctantly impressed.

* * *

The pair of them rest a bit, not talking anymore, then help each other up and Me'ran follows Hiei through the trees.

She searches herself to check inventory. She used most of her medical equipment, and she's missing her glasses, but she can still see alright. She finds the small smoky blue earring in her pocket, and she examines it for a second.

"They wanted to thank you," Hiei explains again when he sees her looking at it. "They were most impressed. The ones still here, Asano and Takani, they wanted to help take care of you and help you recover, but you said 'no' in your sleep."

She smiles and fixes the earring into her ear and twists it a few times, then stretches again. Something about her is weakened and tired, and it's not her body. She starts to walk, but she has to sit down a second to make her head stop swimming. Hiei looks at her and scowls.

"Get up."

She looks at him and swings herself upright and stumbles toward him. He watches her walk a second, then growls quietly when she has to sit back down. Her whole body aches, and she finds that she just really wants to sleep. She doesn't, but she's suffering that feeling that is recognized oh-so-well--When one's body has to sleep, and said body is telling one to. Fight as you wish, there's no chance...

"Fine," he spits. "Goddamned human."

"You're the one that carried me along," she answers. He leans down and hauls her onto his back.

"Just be glad I owe you," he spits. He doesn't look happy, and he starts running.

He chooses the middle of nowhere to stop, and he puts her down. She doesn't have to wait long, because just like last time, a portal opens. Once again, she has to push and hold the barrier open for Hiei to get through again, and she floats through the pseudospace again. She likes the flying feeling. She could sleep like this.

Then she falls through an opening to her world, and Hiei and she land on top of a building a block away from her house.

He lets Me'ran lean on him while he takes her down the side of the building, and he starts helping her through the street. He dropped her off his back, but he's letting her lean on him with an arm over his shoulders and he's half-supporting her, half making her walk of her own damn volition.

Me'ran hears him before she sees him, and she feels him before she hears him. Both she and Hiei turn to look to their lefts when they feel the ancient demonic power of a pissed off former fox-demon.

"You did," Kurama says with... Well, there's no word for that tone. He sounds like a pissed off grandma--angry and cold, but still weak and quiet. "Hiei, don't you think it's, at the very least, a bad idea to be using her for your own ends?" he continues. His face is tight, and his eyes are narrowed. Me'ran's surprised to see it.

"Why would it be?" Hiei counters defensively, standing up straight and forcing her to take all her own weight. Kurama's face gets a little bolder, kind of firmer, and something about it gets kinda scary.

"Hiei, she can be injured beyond recovery and never wake up. She's hurt badly enough to allow herself to be carried. You know--"

"She was not hurt that badly. She's just weak from healing everyone else. What injury she did sustain was so light that she didn't feel it."

"Hiei!" Kurama snaps. He doesn't sound like a pissed off grandma, anymore. Now he sounds just pissed. His hands venture out of his pockets and Me'ran can see that one is closed into a fist. "Even if that was how that worked, do not think I can neither smell the human blood nor see how wounded she is!"

Kurama's kind of cute with his jaw tense and his eyes narrowed, like that, Me'ran hears herself think distantly. Her fore mind is wondering what doesn't work in what way.

"What doesn't work that way?" she asks dumbly. "What way is it that he was trying to make it work?" she adds when it occurs to her.

Kurama sighs and turns his attention to you. His face is relaxed again. It's like watching someone go through a mood swing. "Another reason Koenma picked you was because of your habit of ignoring pain. You can put aside your own wounds and take care of what needs to be done," Kurama explains. He still doesn't look happy, but now that she's spoken, he seems a little better. She guesses it's because it's a little proof that she's okay.

"What about it?" she mumbles, not understanding the connection between her question and what he told her.

"So he was suggesting that you weren't hurt enough to feel it, when in reality you were too hurt to feel it."

"Ah."

Hiei glares. He's mad at Kurama for being so pissy. Me'ran hears another set of footsteps, and she looks to see Yuusuke.

"We knew you took her," Yuusuke says. "Saw you creep into her room last night, and leave. You know, I'd think you were off on a date if I wasn't so sure you two hated each other."

Hiei growls quietly, and he pushes Me'ran firmly into Kurama. "If you want her back so badly, then take her." Kurama catches her and helps support her weight, but she pulls away from him and stands on her own.

"Dammit, Hiei, quit it with the dehumanization, or I'm going to stick that axe head back where I got it!" Me'ran barks heatedly. Bastard, he was so much closer to being nice before these jackasses had to go and be nosy jackasses.

"'Axe head'?!" both Kurama and Yuusuke echo. "Hiei, what the hell were you doing?" Yuusuke demands.

To get Kurama and Yusuke off both their backs, she decides to go ahead and bark at them, too. "And has it occurred to anyone else that if I didn't want to go, I wouldn't have?" Me'ran shouts over everyone.

Kurama looks to Me'ran. "We know, but we know how stubborn he is and how kind you are when things are put the right way. Why do you have an axe head?"

"Oh, I don't have it anymore, it's probably still on the ground where I wound up sleeping. It was jammed into Hiei's back," the young healer explains at the same time Hiei says, "I needed her help in the Makai. I had to get her help to cross the Kekkai barrier, and she helped us with the traps and she pulled that axe head out of my back. I needed her help. I wasn't testing her again."

He shifts on his feet, trying to look a little tougher, but he still looks more humble than before. Me'ran smiles a little and shifts onto her heels.

"And now that we're clear that I went by choice, and Hiei needed my help and wasn't being an ass, I'm going back to my room to shower, make sure that my weekend homework is done, and fuck around for the rest of the day and hope I get a nap in before school, trusting you lot to leave me alone."

She starts to walk away, but after a few steps, her feet get tangled up with each other and Kurama catches her and helps her stand upright again. She cusses quietly and pulls away from him again.

"Why are you so wounded?" he asks her concernedly.

"I helped with the traps. Since I can't die, I spent a lot of time walking right into them. Plus, Hiei had a rather large group with him; I had to heal them when they got hurt. I only learned two names, but they gave me a gift," she sings cheerfully. Kurama's face shows a worried smile, that same smile Me'ran remembers that her mom would get when she was telling her something she didn't want to know.

Me'ran hears Yuusuke and Hiei argue a bit before Hiei brushes off Yuusuke and disappears, and Kurama and Yuusuke both start helping her up the stairs that she can't handle herself.

"Me'ran, are you sure you're going to be alright?" Kurama asks her when she gets back up to her room.

"I'm fine. Why?"

"I was making sure." He pauses. "You know, I think he likes you."

"What? Why the fuck would you think that?" she asks, giggling at the concept alone. She leans on her doorway and looks up at him with a grin.

"If nothing else, he appreciates your power and your personality. You're going to be alright, but if--"

"I know--Yuusuke's down the hall. Relax. I'm going to bed," she says, smiling reassuringly. She hopes it's reassuring, anyway.

He stands by her door for a second as she staggers in, and she can tell there's something bothering him. She turns to look and sees a look of deep concern on his face. "You okay, Minamino-kun?" she inquires.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asks a second time. Or third. Or fourth, it's getting harder to keep track.

"Yeah. Is that it?" she asks, smirking a little.

"Please don't let Hiei do that anymore," he adds.

"I like helping," she tells him. She doesn't want to tell him "no", but she doesn't want to lie, either. So she gives him that answer. He looks very displeased--he knew what she meant. So he bows and goes down the hall the wrong way, probably to talk to Yuusuke.

She gets to her bedroom, but then she sees there's another thing resting on her balcony, a small stone with carving on it that she can't read without her glasses. She pulls her bed out and starts working on her homework that she doesn't have done until she finally falls asleep.


	23. Oh, Shit

_Ah, Shit_

Kurama is walking to school with Me'ran again. The pair of them, since they're in such perfect health (Not including the holes in Me'ran's limbs), don't mind the long walk. This morning, though, neither of them has said anything, and it's a little more tense than normal. She's wondering why, but she doesn't ask until Me'ran finally just gets sick of it.

"Kurama?"

"Please mind the name, we're getting closer to school, and if our peers hear you, I am going to have to figure out why you would call me that."

Oooh, something's bothering him. "What's wrong, Minamino?" she insists.

He looks surprised a second, then looks to see what body language she's displaying. Curiosity, she can only hope, but he reads her more than anyone else has ever even tried.

"Something's wrong?" he asks. "Why would something be wrong?"

"I don't know, but your jaw's been doing that since last night, and you're walking a little faster than normal, and your hands have been moving a lot more than normal."

He makes a soft noise in his throat, one of surprise. "You pay attention to these things?"

"Well, it's a long walk, and we've taken it..." she pauses to count, "a grand total of twenty times. I also know that you scuff your foot on the beginning and end of every block, and halfway over the street when we're crossing. I know that you breathe through your nose until we get about three blocks from my house, because of the smells coming from one of the stores, and you continue breathing through your mouth until we get to the flower shop two blocks after that. I know that you subconsciously crook your fingers when we pass another person. There's not a lot I don't know about the habits between home and school."

He smiles, now. It's cold, but it's a smile. "Revenge?"

"Not intentionally. You know what I mean when I call you creepy, now, though, right?"

"Yes."

"So, you're not happy about something. What is it?"

He makes a slight face. "It worried me when Hiei vanished with you."

Ah, he's still upset about that. "You shouldn't worry so much. I'm a tough girl. You know my history. Even if I wasn't immortal, I'd still survive all that crap," she declares with a proud thumb to her chest. "I'm gonna get a move on," she adds, running ahead of him before he can counter with anything.

* * *

In class, however, she's less inclined to study. She's not sure if she's just imagining it or if her classmates and teachers are being meaner than normal, but that combined with the soreness and bruises and loss of her glasses makes today a bad day.

The rest of the class goes to gym, and she decides to cut. She wouldn't, normally, but today, she's hurt and she doesn't want her classmates asking about her bruises, scabs, and scars in the locker rooms.

"What now?" she asks the sky. "Something bad is gonna happen today, what the hell else can you throw at me?"

"Are you talking to yourself?" Hiei asks her. The startled young woman's on her feet as soon as he speaks, but just as soon as she jumped up, she sits back down.

"You know I do that. Don't scare me like that, prick."

"You're still jumpy?" he chides, smirking in true asshole manner.

"Shut up, the wonky sleep schedule bothers me." To show him she's relaxed, now, she stretches a little and folds her arms behind her head. "The hells are you here for?"

"I was bored. Also, I was checking on your recovery--a few of the idiots from last night didn't believe me when I told them human fragility was not something you suffered, and they were worried about you."

"I'm fine. Done limping for the day, and I'm no longer dying of the pain that wracks my very soul."

Hiei smirks. "Next time, I'll remember to ask your idiot boyfriend if I can borrow you. He was pissed off at me last night, though I'm sure you saw that."

"Don't mock him--he can't help it. And quit talking about me like I'm a thing, rather than a person. And he's not my boyfriend," she argues, crossing her arms annoyedly.

"Are you sure? He's been trying to charm you since you got here. Surely you've seen it."

She's a little tired of him being a mindfuck, so she decides to take a shot at him to scare him off. "Why are you really here?"

He looks hard at her and scowls.

"What--"

"I'm not stupid, Hiei, I'm crazy. I know you're here for a reason. Why?"

He disappears. Me'ran smiles proudly and rolls up to go back to gym.

* * *

Once she's back in class, she starts studying the carved rock left on her balcony last night. She still can't read the damn thing, but it doesn't matter. The shape is kinda. Well, it's kind of deformed anyway; the kanji's been adjusted to make kind of a picture.

"Erufib Meruran, come here," a voice suddenly says. She looks at the door and see Sawada-sensei (the principal/head teacher) standing there.

"Sir?" she asks, standing up quickly. He twitches two fingers to call her forward. She goes out the door.

"Sir?" she asks again when she gets out the door. He looks her over, then pushes her gently down the hall.

"To my office."

Well, the initial thought was that she was in trouble for cutting gym, but that wouldn't be greeted with a trip to the main office. But she hasn't done anything else, either, now, dammit, what the hell could she be in trouble for?

No one else is in here. All the other teachers are busy. He takes Me'ran to his desk.

"Where were you, the last few nights?" he asks her as he sits down, leaving her to stand in front of his desk. She blinks a little.

"Sleeping," she lies. She watches him, looking for a sign of what he might have planned, or what he's onto. He looks annoyed, like he knows it's not the truth. How the hell can he know she's lying?

"Are you sure?" he answers. She tries to look into his eyes, hoping that he's one of those idiots that'll believe a lie if one's looking him in the eyes, but his glasses are reflecting light from the lamp on his desk, and she can't see his eyes.

"I don't go out on school nights," she confirms. "And I'm new to Japan, I don't know anywhere else to go. I do good to remember how to get to school."

He lowers his glasses and looks over them, into her eyes, and she realizes his eyes are so dark purple that they look black, but they are, indeed, purple. The light was reflecting off his glasses on purpose. He's a demon. Why a demon would want to be a high school principal is beyond Me'ran's perception, but he is, and he's glaring very hard at the human healer in front of him.

And then he puts her glasses down on the desk in front of him, and she knows now that he knows exactly where the hell she was.

"Stop playing dumb," he finally sighs, sitting back. He knows he's gotten through to her, and she has no excuse for lying to him anymore. "Who do you think maintained that house? All of them went off, and it was supposed to have been empty for centuries, and no one thought that maybe someone was keeping it? Did you really think you'd get away with it?"

"First--I'm sorry I lied, I thought you were a human. And second--To be honest, sir, I had no idea what they were doing. I was following because--"

"I'm fully aware of why you were there and how much you had to do with it. And that doesn't matter. I'm not concerned with who did what. What I'm concerned with is getting it all back."

"Uh, sir--"

"If you don't get them back, then I will be punished by my overlords, and if I am punished, I'll make sure that you get it just as bad if not worse. Do you understand me?"

"I can't-"

"Starting with that earring." Arguing has done shit good. Me'ran pulls it out of her ear and hands it over. "You're to leave the building and contact that shrimp fire demon of a leader and tell him exactly what I told you. I'll excuse any absences you take, but if you show up and I don't have everything back, I'll take you hostage and cut off your hands. Leave," he commands, tossing her glasses to her and turning his back to her, allowing Me'ran to run.

She doesn't leave the building immediately. She drops by class to get homework, and then she runs up to the roof. There are three people here skipping class, and they all jump up at the sight of her, one of them goes straight to his feet into a fighting stance.

"_Damn, don't scare us like that!_" cries one in English. Me'ran glares at him, and he settles back on his heels, but still not sitting, and he starts growling, "Damn American" in Japanese again, probably thinking you don't speak Japanese, yet.

"I can understand you," she tells him. "And on that note, you'd better get lost."

He looks at Me'ran, and the other two, a male and female, stare at the pair. Apparently, these guys are supposed to be punks. Or, at least, one of them is, the one standing and facing Me'ran. He's only an inch taller than her, and she's relatively certain that even she's bigger than him, muscle/weight-wise. "I don't want to hurt you, and if you don't want me to hurt you, I suggest you go the hell inside and find somewhere else to skip," she informs him, keeping her voice low and dangerous. He looks into her eyes, then smirks and swings.

His fist moves more slowly than anything she's ever seen before. She's amazed that he's even remotely counted as a fighter. She catches his arm easily and holds it still.

He stops moving entirely.

"Did you see her move?" asks the girl at a whisper. The boy sitting next to her shakes his head.

"Get lost," the blue-eyed girl commands, releasing him.

Instead of doing what Me'ran wants him to, the current opponent gets angrier at her for making him look pathetic, and he swings at her again. She sidesteps and knocks him down by kicking his ankle gently. He falls onto his face, then scrambles up and dives at her again. She catches him by the fists.

"Please stop, I don't want any more blood on my hands," she whimpers, now. She twists her face just right, and her voice goes weaker, in an attempt to make her threat clearer. He stops, stepping back and staring at Me'ran with bigger-than-normal eyes.

"What--"

"Exactly what you're thinking. Please leave."

He beckons to the other two and runs.

After they leave, her anger with Hiei returns. She paces the roof for a second. "You fucking knew about this," she growls to no one. Hiei's not up here, but she's hoping he can hear her. "HIEI!" she roars, looking around. A set of footsteps sound on the bit of roof where the door is, but they're not Hiei's so she's not that concerned with them, and she continues to wait.

"Lady Healer," the owner of the footsteps says. Me'ran turns to face him, and she recognizes him as Asano--the one that got his side nearly bitten through. Without thinking, she examines the places he was wounded (he's not wearing a shirt), and she's proud to see that there aren't even scars. No time for pride, where's that three-eyed midget?

"You. Where's Hiei?"

"He sent me. My name is Asano. He's already gone to retrieve the treasures from the ones of us in the Ningenkai. He told me to tell you that he'll want to take you with him to the Makai, soon, and to not go to school, obviously. Also--I want to thank you for healing me those times, and I am compelled to warn you--not all of us feel indebted to you. We won't try to kill you, because we all know we can't, and that would inspire Hiei's wrath, but don't trust any of us. Including me."

"I don't have to trust you, I know full well I could snap you over my knee," she says with a smile. "You're only a half-demon, aren't you?"

He blushes and bows a little lower.

"Lady Healer is wise. Asano will fare thee well. Good bye," he says quickly, fleeing her presence.

She slides down the side of the building and starts on the walk home.

* * *

She gets into her apartment and she sits down at her table a second with her fingers laced. She really can't do anything, right yet--she doesn't know any of those demons, so she pretty much has to sit back and let Hiei take care of it. She hates doing that, though, letting other people do it.

So she waits until Hiei gets the balls to visit, or Kurama or Yuusuke or someone. She doesn't feel like walking, yet--she doesn't trust Sawada-sensei to not sneak up behind her and chloroform her.

"What the hell have you gotten me into!?" she barks at Hiei as he steps onto her balcony. He's finally come to visit. "And why the hell don't you use doors?"

"I like your window better. I didn't get you into anything."

"My ass you didn't! My head teacher threatened to cut off my hands!"

"He was supposed to be dead. That place has been empty for centuries," he says defensively. She has to try to not cuss him. This takes some effort. So she's quiet for a second, breathing slowly through her nose.

"Fine, fine. Have you gotten everything back?"

"There are some of us still in the Makai. You'll be going with me to get the stuff from them. I do have most of it from the demons in the Ningenkai."

This makes her feel better.

"So, is this why you were at school, today? Checking to make sure he hadn't killed me?"

"I was more worried about stealing you in general, but in a way, yes. Dead people can't help me," he concedes. She goes to the kitchen. He follows her as far as the doorway, and he sits on the floor against the wall.

She starts cooking, mainly to take her mind off things. He seems amused at something, but she doesn't know what. She considers throwing something at him to get that smirk off his face, but she decides against it. He'd probably just catch it, anyway.

"You're not scared?" he asks, finally.

"Of what?"

"Maybe you can die? Maybe he's one of your kind? What if he does take you?"

"Shit happens," she answers. The doubts had entered her mind, but she figures that if she was going to die, she would have, by now. She puts the food on two plates and slides one in Hiei's direction, and she sits against the opposite wall, under the cooking counter.

He's staring hard at the window, probably irked by the distance from it. She doesn't say anything for a while, until she finishes her food, and she looks to see him again, and she discovers that he's eaten, too. She's almost complimented.

"Well, if I'm not here next time you come by, feel free to assume that he got me," Me'ran singsongs with a mockingly cheerful smile as she takes his plate and washes their dishes.

He starts moving while she's cleaning, and she hears him start back for the balcony door.

"I'll be picking you up to take you to the Makai with me. I'm stronger than the people here, so I can intimidate them into giving me everything back, but the case won't be the same for the ones that stayed in the Makai. Be prepared."

And with that, he's gone again. She stretches a little and continues cleaning, then she goes to her room and starts playing with her typewriter again.


	24. Back to the Makai

_Back to the Makai_

At about four in the morning, she wakes up to the strange footsteps crossing her room. She sits up in the bed, and glares at Hiei. He'd just picked up his foot to kick her.

"I'm up," she barks. "You should really try a method other than kicking me."

"Hn," he says. "Get dressed, we're going."

"Why do you keep picking the early morning hours?" Me'ran whines, pulling the clothes she put in her bed with her on under the covers before emerging and straightening everything.

"I'm conspicuous in daylight," he answers. She looks at him, and she realizes he's dressed differently than normal--a blue shirt and black pants, rather than his cloak. She ties her first aid kits back to her legs, and she puts her glasses firmly on her head.

He grabs her wrist and jumps, taking her with him, and leads her out to the middle of nowhere again, but this time, closer to town.

"So, why haul me along?" she asks after she stops. She figures they're waiting for another portal. He looks mildly annoyed, and he puts his face down and faces away from her, probably so he can pass it off as something other than humility.

"I'll probably need your help. I'll wind up fighting at least two of them for the loot. And I can't get through the barrier net without you or Kuwabara, and there is no way in any hell that exists that I am staying in his company for more than I have to."

While he speaks, a portal opens, and she waits for him to hop through before she does, and she follows him through the psuedospace. "Kuwabara?" she asks on the way.

"Yes--he can break it. I'm not even sure how you can null its effects, or even touch it, but I'm counting that as an anonymous blessing. Let's get going." He puts his feet down and lets her push the barrier net a little wider, and he slips through, then waits for her to start flying again before he starts following her.

They both touch down in the Makai, and she waits for him to move, but he doesn't. He first takes off his headband. She can see the eye under it open wide, and she feels a strange rush of air around her, and she sees him change a little in appearance at the same time a strange chill goes up her spine.

"What is that?" she asks, looking at him curiously. He smirks.

"Youki. I normally keep mine concealed, but there's no reason, now. I didn't let it out the night before last because it would have killed Asano and Kiyoshi."

She nods and looks off the cliff they're on. Hiei suddenly drops off the side. She waits to see what he's about to do before she follows him.

He catches something in the wall and pulls himself in. She drops after him and slides her arm and braces her feet around the steep decline and catch herself here and there until she finally finds the cave Hiei's waiting in. He's standing there, apparently waiting for her.

"Go heal him--he's farther back in the cave. Make it quick, I stabbed him in the stomach."

"Stomach or abdomen?"

"Stomach."

"That takes two days to kill you," she informs him before she moves into the dark, putting her glasses on her head and she finds the hunched over figure against the wall, whimpering. She thinks for a second before she finally just puts her hand into the hole in his abdomen and heals his stomach, then heals the hole. She bows to him and goes back to Hiei. He gives her an odd look, then smirks and hops back off the cliff. This time, he goes all the way to the ground, so she drops and joins him.

"So, I'm following you to heal the injury you inflict, too?" she asks annoyedly. He quirks an eyebrow, then starts running without warning, leaving her to catch up.

"Of course. Why else would I have brought an idiot human girl with me to my own home world?"

"I don't know," she confesses. "At this point, I'd make a witty joke about how you secretly love me, but I've had enough of secret love with Kurama hanging onto hope that I might return feelings."

"You can't be serious--that naïve fox," Hiei laughs quietly.

"I feel sorry for him, honestly," she mutters. He slides to a halt, suddenly, and she skids, almost losing her feet.

"Trap?" she asks, spotting the hole in the ground that someone's already fallen into. Hiei hops into a tree, and he gestures with one hand for her to join him. She does so.

"Why are you even bothering? Wouldn't it be easier to kill me?" she asks as they start moving again.

"Considering how difficult you are to kill, no," Hiei answers, hopping from branch to branch. He goes slower than he can, she knows, because he doesn't know that she's just as at home in a tree as she is on the ground, if not moreso. "Would you rather die than just hunt down a few demons and practice your healing anyway? Possibly even spread your name--if you ever get stuck here, the Makai underground will know you and possibly even offer protection in return for your help."

"Of course I'd rather live, but it would be easier to just kill me," she points out.

"That's not an option. You're hard to kill, and Kurama would slice me to pieces with that damn flower of his even if I could kill you, and that's not even counting that I don't want to. You've already gone from closing one gash to reattaching limbs in less than a week; I can't imagine what help you'll be in a month."

She nods and gives an affirmative grunt, and she's about to say her thoughts on it, but then something happens, and the branch she catches herself on breaks, and she hits the ground. Hiei stops and lands next to her. He has his sword drawn, so she knows now that the branch breaking wasn't an accident.

"Hiei," a strange voice says. She sits up and looks at the source of the voice. He's a very large man, probably the better part of eight or nine feet tall. He's got long blue hair in a braid, and he's wearing fairly nice robes. She's getting a worse demon aura from him than from Hiei.

"Ah," she says quietly. "Hiei, I'm going this way. Whichever one of you can still scream when you finish, call for me," she sings lightly, going sideways, away from them.

She feels her face begin to grin, and the hairs stand up on the back of her neck as she realizes that he's looking at her. He scares her, and that look on his face is growing more and more intimidating. She wants to be away from him, but she can't move too quickly--he'll hurt you if he thinks you're aiming for attack. She already knows that. She realizes that the reason she's afraid of him is the murderous intent.

She starts to move a little quicker, to see if she can. She's hoping the bad feeling goes away, but it doesn't. He's still looking hard at her, and he's smiling, now, and she feels her heart choke her.

"You're the healer? You look much smaller in the light," he says with a smile. "You got caught, did you? Can you not kill her, Hiei?" he asks. "I was not among those who got to test her. May I, now?"

"You know how useful she is--to kill her now would be a waste. Hand over the armlet," Hiei commands. She's frozen in her spot, and he's still staring at her. "Now, before I get bored with this and give her more than just those scratches on your neck to heal."

"You're the one that nearly lost your head! I remember now! Your hair kept getting in the way, but I couldn't see your face because of that mask! I'll heal those in a bit, assuming I'm alive enough to," she laughs quietly, smiling a little. She feels a little better, now that she remembers how weak he felt last night, and she knows he's not invulnerable. Even she managed to dodge those wires.

The demon man looks to Me'ran, then at Hiei, and he laughs.

"I knew I could trust you to find a human insane enough to mock a demon to his face," he says. "She ought to die quickly for it."

As he speaks, he pulls out a battle axe, crescent-moon blade, and he twirls it in his fingers, and he moves toward her.

"Don't fight me, fight Hiei!" Me'ran objects, standing frozen in her place.

"No. You see, I don't want him dead; I want the one that I'll have to return my treasure for dead. If you're dead, I get to keep it because there's no reason to give it back. Hold still."

He starts to move even faster, and he's right on top of her in under a second, right in front of her with his axe held on his shoulder. He wraps his hand around to put it on her back, not allowing her anywhere to run even if she did have time to react. She only just sees a black shape flicker, and then she's hit with a spray of blood, and she can see Hiei's sword jutting out of her current foe's chest. He freezes with shock, staring down at the sword coming right out where his heart should be.

"I suggest you let her go and stop, now, and let her heal you. You have twelve seconds to go before that wound kills you."

"Agreed," he sputters. Hiei draws his sword back out of his back, and he releases her and takes a couple of steps back before sitting down heavily and holding his hand to his chest.

She decides it'd be wiser to heal him from behind, and she moves to his back and she heals about halfway through, sending her reiki all the way to his heart. She can't make herself get any farther than that, so she has to switch to his chest to finish the rest of the way through. She also decides to get his neck while she's at it, and she touches at it lightly and heals it the rest of the way through, but she's cut short when a very large hand wraps all the way around her throat. He makes another motion, probably to knock Hiei back, but she can't see it.

"You're a very skilled child," he says darkly as he takes a grip on her hair so he can readjust the grip on her throat. The calloused skin feels rough and digs in as he squeezes. Her eyes start blacking at the edges, and she can't see, anymore, and she has a little trouble breathing. Her feet are no longer on the ground. "You are, however, a fool."

She still can't see. She thinks it's the fact that her blood's been cut off. But she's still breathing, which is good. She tries to pry his hand off her throat, but her hand's a lot weaker and smaller than his, and she's dangling pretty loosely, so there's nothing to brace herself against.

Something painful happens, and she gets a really bad headache. She hears both the guy holding her and Hiei's voices demand "what the hell?"

"Put me down," she requests quietly. "Please," she adds when he doesn't comply.

She hits the ground, but the blood doesn't go back to her brain and eyes until she pries the hand off her throat. Hiei had very efficiently removed it. The demon's backing away, holding the stump of his arm and screaming.

"What happened?" she asks, rubbing her head. There's a bleeding spot in it.

"He just discovered your immortality, and I no longer have any question."

"What'd he do, though? It hurts," she whines while she rubs the bleeding knot on her scalp.

"He tried to break your head with his axe. You were knocked out by it, and I thought he'd killed you, but you woke up. It broke the axe."

"Ah."

Hiei walks over to the guy and holds his hand out. Guy puts something in Hiei's palm, and he scurries away, carrying his arm**  
**

* * *

Me'ran's head continues hurting. Her glasses are back on her head and the blood stops flowing out of the hole in her hair, but she still keeps the fucking headache, and she still feels pretty shitty, running after Hiei. He's not going at top speed because when he tried, she was blinding herself with the speed, and she almost didn't notice when he stopped. Her body could go that fast, but her eyes and brain couldn't keep up.

"Stop here," Hiei says, slowing in his run until he can stop without sliding. She suddenly realizes why---footsteps other than theirs are sounding after them. She looks around, moving her back to Hiei's, until she sees two identically-dressed demons move into their view. One's in front of Me'ran, the other's in front of Hiei. Both of them are carrying spears and have shorter blades with them.

"Jaganshi," one says. "We're fully prepared to stop you from taking what is ours."

Me'ran starts to move, but Hiei seizes her wrist.

"Don't."

"Why not? It's not like I can-"

"Shut up."

She stays put after that. A blade is in her face, and her arm moves to knock it away. She feels the sharp sting as the blade slices cleanly through her skin, but not far enough to do more than superficial damage. She lunges at the girl (yes, it's a girl) and puts her elbow into the opponent's face. The girl steps back and jams her spear at Me'ran's side, but she catches the spear at the shaft and she pulls it away and hits the girl in the throat with the butt of it.

Then, suddenly, Me'ran feels something take hold of her hair and wrench her upright and almost off the ground, leaving her to balance precariously on her toes. Something sharp is on her neck. Her head is leaning back against a shoulder that is slightly higher than her neck, so she can't fight.

Something like fear takes hold of her--her heart is racing, and everything swims for a second while she fights to concentrate. There's not a lot she can do in this situation.

"We've got her, Hiei," the male voice warns. He's the one holding her.

"So?" Hiei snorts. "She's tougher than she looks."

Me'ran's almost hurt, but she can hear the concern in his voice. Plus, seriously, what're they gonna do--kill me? she asks herself. But that doesn't settle the fear choking her or the way her heart is pounding.

"All we have to do is slit her little white throat, Hiei. You know how easy it is to kill humans," he adds. The knife digs in and finds blood, but nothing more than superficial spillage.

"Go for it," Me'ran laughs/coughs. Hiei smirks a little and throws in a "good luck."

The boy tightens his grip on the blade, and he moves. She senses a little hesitation, but then the blade sinks into her throat. It stings, but not a lot--It's like slicing one's hand with a knife while one's cooking or something. She waits to hear a splashing sound of her blood hitting the ground, but it doesn't come. She is, however, able to breathe, even though her mouth is closed and she's not breathing through her nose.

"How the hell'd you miss?!" the girl shrieks at the boy as he drops Me'ran. She lands on her knees. There's a little more commotion, but she's busy registering the fact that she's not dead. It's like dying in a dream--One should be dying, but even so, one is still able to think and breathe and the racing heartbeat is not slowing. She runs her hand over her neck and finds the hole. Me'ran tries to gasp, but it's really hard to do that with her trachea open. There's very little blood, but her throat is open.

Me'ran tries to cry out, but the air just falls out of her new "mouth". She starts to panic. My throat is open. She's still not bleeding too badly, but she's breathing through a hole in her neck. Haha, tracheotomy, oh god, there's a fucking... I can't talk, this sucks, but it'll be hard to choke me now, though.

"Stop panicking," Hiei barks. His voice snaps her back to reality, and she looks up at him, eyes wide. He's kneeling in front of her, and he looks strangely compassionate, and he pulls her shaking hand from her throat to examine it, then he looks back at her face, particularly at her eyes. He looks concerned, almost worried, and she can see it clearly in his face and eyes. The oddness of this pulls her back to reality when her brain suddenly demands, "The fuck's wrong with him?" His mouth pulls as if he's disgusted by the hole when he looks back at it.

"Your windpipe has been cut. Can you heal it?" he asks her, leaning to get a better look at her slit throat.

She shakes her head, and she tries to say "no", but it doesn't do any good, and the only sound that comes out is the sound of her tongue moving.

"You're going to have to try, because there's no way I can do it."

Me'ran lowers her head and she puts her hand to it, and she puts the reiki there, but she can't see it, so she can't figure out what she's doing, so it's just a waste. If it were anything but her throat... She pulls out one of the kits on her leg, and she threads a needle, and takes Hiei's hand and puts the needle in it.

"What??" he demands, looking at it and thrusting it back at her.

Me'ran points at the needle, then at the wound violently, and she tries to use her face to implore him.

"I can't!"

She crosses her arms and glares at him, then she leans her head back.

"I can't," he objects again. "You do it."

I can't, Hiei, I can't see it, and there's no way for me to see it.

"I've never even sewn cloth together, much less a throat. I don't know how."

Me'ran scowls a little, then looks at the scratch on her arm, and she takes the needle from him. It's too shallow to need them, but it's just deep enough to be able to take them. He tries to look away as she puts the needle into her arm, but she takes him by the back of the head and makes him turn back to her arm. It's hard to believe a cutthroat as hard as this one refuses to watch simple medical stuff. Me'ran makes him watch as he pushes the needle into the flesh, and she watches him wince for her. She glares at him, then picks the skin back up and starts putting the curved needle through the other side of the slice, and she sews it shut. It hurts like a mother fucker, but she deals with it long enough to get most of the way done. He got the balls to not turn away after a little while, but then, with three inches of hole left, she stops. He looks at her.

"You're not done."

He gets the clue when she takes his hand and puts the needle in it. He stares at Me'ran like she'd suddenly sprouted horns, then pushes it back. She folds her not-being-sewn arm behind her and thrusts the being-sewn arm out at him. He looks at it, then at her, then at the needle, then at it again, and he puts the needle to her skin. She corrects the way he's holding it, and she watches him push it through. The skin pulls a little, and he makes a face, but then he keeps going, all the way to the end. Then she cuts it off and she leans her head back.

He looks disgusted for a second, and she feels an intense pain as he sticks the needle into her neck. The needle puts up a little bit of a fight, but he pushes through easily after applying a little bit of strength.

I trust you, Hiei, don't fuck this up.

"No promises," he finally grunts, working quietly and slowly across the hole in her throat, until he finally cuts the thread off and hands the needle back to her. Then he stands up quickly and brushes himself off, as if something's on him.

She tests out her voice, but all that comes out of her mouth is a little over a whisper. "Thank you."

"Nn," he groans quietly. He looks like he's gonna be sick. "Let's go."

He's quiet while Me'ran follows him. There's only a little more loot to go, but it's been a long day, and she's healed too many people. She's wearing down, even though it's only late afternoon. But apparently, Hiei has a designated place he likes to sleep, and it'll take them until evening to get there. She's wondering if it'll really take that long, or if he's just feeling particularly merciful after she got her throat slit.

"Can't you move any faster?" Hiei demands. She's too tired to be pissed off at his tones, or she'd stop running and start walking just to piss him off.

"I'm fucking tired," she hisses. She wishes she could speak louder. "I've been running all day, and I'm not used to it, plus I've been healing people nearly two days straight, and I'm not used to that, either."

"Come here," Hiei barks. He stops running, and she sits down until he drags her up by the hair, and he pulls her onto his back. She hangs on, trying to keep from choking him. She's too tired to notice the sudden change in behavior, too. When she does notice, she shuts it towards "He's just impatient".

Me'ran rests her eyes while her head sits on his shoulder. She realizes he smells a lot like the Makai, though he has a few extra scents--blood, grass, and something extra that she thinks might be his personal scent. She turns her head out of her neck and closes ehr eyes and rests.


	25. Fun Begins

_Fun Begins_

She only just registers that he's stopped before he drops her and she lands gracelessly on her ass. She starts to get annoyed and yell at him (or try), but then a gigantic light appears in her face, and it inspires her to look around. She's surrounded by grass. It's very tall grass. She stands up, and she realizes exactly how tall the grass it--it goes up to her lower ribs and mid-chest on Hiei. It's dusk, and there are lightning bugs coming out. The lightning bugs light up at least five feet of air around them, and the dew's just begun to fall, so she can see the water droplets every time the bugs light up.

"It's beautiful," she whispers, absentmindedly letting awe into her remains of a voice. Hiei grunts and stalks forward. She watches him as he stomps and goes to a line of trees, then vanishes.

"You sleep in trees?" she asks, walking over and looking up for him.

"Yes."

"Ah," she grunts, moving back into the grass. It's a warm night, she notices. "If I sleep down here, nothing's going to get me, is it?" She doesn't really care. If something tries to kill her, it'll fail, and he'll take care of it, or she'll choke it when it tries to swallow her. Or she'll die, but the chances of that are none to zilch.

"No," he says, finally.

"Cool. G'night, Hiei," she sighs, rolling onto her side in the grass.

She waits to sleep, but she doesn't. Her mind buzzes, and she wishes she could silence it. She first notices how tired she is, but not sleepy. She notices how quiet it is, here. She notices how warm it is, and how good the air feels, and tastes. Almost all discomfort at her clothes and her throat are forgotten. And she shuts it all out and struggles to sleep.

"What's wrong?" Hiei finally asks her. He drops out of his tree and moves up to her.

"Something," she answers, rolling onto her back to see him. "It's a bad feeling, but I could just be scared about sleeping in the demon world."

"Do you feel eyes?"

"Yours. Quit looking at me," she sighs, getting up. She lets her heart wander for a second until she catches herself nodding, even though she's not aware of it. She looks through the grass towards the direction she and Hiei had come from.

"What is it?" she asks him.

He closes his eyes, and the one on his forehead glows, and then he opens the natural two.

"Dokuja," he mumbles.

"Should I leave?" she asks, looking at Hiei concernedly.

"Don't bother," it hisses. Death has a voice, she thinks. It sounds like it's talking from the grave, all gravelly with worms in its throat.

"You're not strong enough," Hiei mumbles. She's not sure if he means to fight or heal. She's assuming the healing, because she doesn't fight willingly. But he's right. She nods.

"Don't worry about it. Healing will knock me out, but I wanted to sleep anyway," she sings conversationally, giggling nervously.

"Not afraid?" he mocks.

"Since when do you care?" she inquires, looking out over the area, trying to see the source of the voice.

"I don't. Get in the tree; come down when you feel like you can."

And with that, she jumps up and starts looking.

No sooner than she gets up there, Hiei releases a little more youki, and she shivers unwillingly. She gets a better look at the serpent demon. He looks like an oversized komodo dragon with more legs. So something on top of the food chain in her world, plus demon powers... We're fucked, huh... (1)

It runs at Hiei, and she sees the little fire demon tense a little and wait for it. It lunges, and Hiei stabs at its head, but it's better than that, and it moves to let one of its hands close around it. The hand doesn't even get cut--in fact, it pulls Hiei's sword out of his hand and throws it. She wishes that were a trick of the dark, but it's not.

Hiei takes a blow dealt by the claws across his chest. He jumps back and kneels, then looks over at his sword's place in the grass. He jumps over to pick the sword back up, and he tries to attack the monster with it, but it rolls over onto its back and catches the sword again. This time, Hiei changes the blade's angle and sticks the demon through the ribs, and splits its arm down the middle cleanly.

In reaction, it rolls back over and rams Hiei's chest with its head. The miniature demon's feet clear the ground and he falls onto his back. Hiei gets right back up determinedly, but the thing was chasing after Hiei the whole time, and he's too close, now. Hiei tries to bring his sword down through it, but it just knocks Hiei's sword out of his hand and bites Hiei's left shoulder, wrapping its tongue around his throat. She hears Hiei cry out in pain.

Me'ran drops out of the tree and she lands right next to Hiei's sword, and she picks it up. The monster lets go of Hiei, who drops to the ground, and it jumps up and onto her. She holds the sword up and out in both hands, and she feels resistance on the blade as the lizard-monster's six-inch claws sink into her broad shoulders. It stops moving with a groan. She pulls the blade out and lets the monster fall on the ground, and she runs back to Hiei, bringing the sword with her. She almost starts to feel bad about killing it, but she can blame accident, this time, and she's too busy worrying about Hiei.

"Get the blood off the blade," Hiei barks. He's sitting up, holding his hand over the profusely bleeding wound in his shoulder. Me'ran starts to heal it, but then she realizes the bites are swollen, and they're turning red.

"Oh, shit."

Me'ran's eyes rest on Hiei's puffy bites for a while. She's not sure what to do, now--it's been too long to suck the poison out, plus it doesn't work, plus those are big bite wounds.

"What?" he asks, leaning his head up and twisting his neck around to look at the wounds. Then he swears quietly, and he falls back, letting his head hit the ground hard.

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbles. "Uh." She picks Hiei up and moves him back to the trees where she can see a little better, out of the shadow of the grass. She smiles falsely, though she's half-aware of the fact that the grin is more like a "get into the van, I've got candy" grin, rather than the reassuring smile she was trying for. Shut UP, you stupid brain, and figure out if we're fucked or not.

"It's poison, obviously," she says aloud. She runs through her memories to see if Genkai taught her anything particularly useful. Antivenin is needed if a person can't survive on his or her own. Hiei's in good shape, but how strong is this guy's poison? "How do you feel?" Me'ran asks, now.

"I'm fine," Hiei lies. Then he rolls over and makes a gagging noise, and she pulls him upright and moves him a little to allow him to throw up. Jeez, this is working quick...

He groans a little, and she picks him up and moves him to a different tree in the line, away from the puke smell and into some better moonlight, and she looks again at the wound, putting her face so close to it that blood gets on her nose. The blood's clotting weird, but that only narrows it down to two kinds of venom... Dammit...

"Don't be stoic and fucking tell me," she finally barks imperatively, wishing her voice could sound more threatening. "Move your arm. Is it numb? Does it burn? I gotta know what kind of poison it is."

He looks up at her, looking adorable for a second, almost like a kid. Then he tucks his head back down, and he ruins it. She watches his fingers twitch, but only twitch, and he picks up his arm, and his hand falls limply, as if it's asleep.

"It's working quickly. How about your mind, you still thinking clearly?" she asks, leaning close to his face to look into his eyes, which are steadily rolling back in their sockets.

"What?"

"How many fingers am I holding up?" she asks, holding up three fingers.

"Huh?" He looks back up at her and blinks confusedly. She puts the fingers a little closer to his face.

"How many fingers, Hiei?"

"Four," he grunts.

"Shit," she whines. "How long was he putting that stuff in?"

"Biting point on," he answers. His eyes open all the way, and he picks his head back up, but his mouth is slack, and Me'ran can see the worry in his face. "What can you do about this? Dokuja venom's usually..." He doesn't say the "deadly" she expects, but he doesn't say anything else, and, instead, rolls his head back to the ground and takes a deep, slow breath.

Me'ran smiles a little. "Don't worry, Hiei," she tells him reassuringly. Then she goes to a shorter tree in the line and cuts off a large set of leaves. They look like banana-tree leaves. She goes back to Hiei and puts them down, then she cuts off the monster's--did he call it a Dokuja?--head and pulls it over with her. After she settles on the ground there, she cuts off the bottom jaw.

"What the hell are you doing?" the poisoned one demands.

"Hm? You're going to need antivenin," Me'ran answers cheerfully. Well, she tried to sound cheerful, anyway, but her voice sounded sort of strangled, due to the choking sensation of her stomach in her throat, and those stitches aren't making talking easy.

"What the hell-" He starts to say something else mean, but then he closes his eyes and grunts, then he gives something like a cry of pain. Me'ran thinks it's a cry of pain, anyway. Maybe it's Hiei's version of a cry of pain. It's not very convincing, but he wouldn't fake it. She puts her head closer to the bite wounds again, and looks carefully, then goes back to what she was doing.

She takes the severed head and holds it up, then takes Hiei's sword back and start removing the skin off the bottom jaw. After removing as much of it as she can, she folds it and rolls the edges until she's sure it'll stay that way, then sews it tightly, trying to make it watertight. And then she puts one of the oversized leaves in her lap, and she uses the second one to press over the fangs. Venom seeps slowly from the fangs into the leaf in her lap, and she waits until her arms get tired, then decides she has enough. She tosses the head aside and she picks up the leaf to her lips and drinks it.

The reasoning behind this is simple--Antivenins come from the antibodies that are born from someone who has drunk a small enough amount of it to not kill them. And since she can't die, she's got nothing to worry about. Well, unless this counts as suicide. She should have just made it "bite" her.

It tastes very strongly of vodka mixed with Windex, and she doesn't like it. Reminds her of the first time she got drunk--the taste of the vodka was impossibly bad. It burns unpleasantly, too, all the way down. Her tongue goes numb, after a second more, and then her throat.

"What the hell are you doing?" Hiei objects, nearly sitting up, moving to seize her wrist, but she moves back, spilling a little of the venom down her front--the poison had slowed him down that the move was almost too easy to dodge.

Me'ran takes the leaf down and pours the rest of the venom into the bag she made, and she smiles at him.

"Don't distract me," she says. "Not yet. Is there running water near here?"

He nods slowly, then points. "North."

"'kay. Can I use your shirt, or would you prefer I used my sleeves?"

He tugs weakly at his own shirt, but he gives up after a second, apparently due to muscle weakness. She tears the sleeves off her shirt, happy she wore long sleeves, and she pulls a fang out of the head, and she heads toward the body of the monster, first.

Once she gets to its body, she takes off more of its skin, taking off its tail so she doesn't have to sew as much. She takes the spine and the muscle out, then she goes toward the water. She steps in it before she finds it, but then she steps back and looks down to see and hear the trickling stream, no wider than a good hop across. Awesome.

First, she cleans out the skin, then the fang, and then she fills the skin up with water. It holds. She tests out drinking it, and it doesn't kill her, so she drinks a lot more, then refills the water skin. After that, she soaks the sleeves in the water, and she waits a second. The water's frigid cold, so she waits for her hands to go numb before she draws them out.

After she's satisfied with everything she's got, she goes back to Hiei with the water skin, and she sits next to him. She puts the folded sleeves over the bite wound, cleans it off with one, and she uses the other to put over it to keep the swelling down.

"Okay. Now you can distract me," Me'ran sighs, leaning on her elbow on the ground next to him. "And I know you'll want some, but you can't have any water, and it's a better idea to keep you lying down."

"What the hell are you doing?!" Hiei barks, looking at the pale Healer-woman in a half-glare. Sort of. One eye's open, and Me'ran can tell he's having trouble focusing.

"Gonna save your ass," she answers. Her voice is weaker than it was a few minutes ago, she notices annoyedly.

He starts to talk again, but then he chokes on the words and falls silent. She sees sweat forming on his brow, and she checks to see if he's feverish or what, but it's a cold sweat. (Relatively cold, anyway—he's still hotter than she's ever been in her life)

She puts her still-cold hand to the wounds in his chest, making goosebumps rise under it. She sort of chuckles and her hand starts to glow green, but he catches her wrist in his right hand. The bandages feel strange against her skin, and she wonders for a second what's under them.

"Don't be stupid, you need your strength," he tells her, letting go of her hand. She smiles again and pats his arm, then moves so she's comfortable, leaning against the tree next to him.

Few hours, she thinks. That oughtta do it. She realizes that she's exhausted, now, and her throat burns, too, and she feels mildly sick to her stomach. Just the poison, she tells herself. I can't die, so it's no worry. Worry about Hiei.

After a little while of being there, she wants to do something. So she gets up and starts to sew the gashes on Hiei's chest closed.

"You're pretty tough," Me'ran comments quietly as she finishes closing the last of the gashes from the claws. "You didn't even wince."

"I've had worse," he grunts before he says, "You're being stupid about this poison."

"You're not immortal. Tough and immortal aren't the same. By the speed it took out your arm, you'll be lucky to make it through the night."

"You're the first I've seen cross the line between tough and immortal," he says. "I'm not immortal, but I'm not that easy to kill."

But even so, he looks a little more worried, and he starts trying to get up. She pushes him back down. Then it occurs to her that he might want his sword. She cleans off the sword, then puts it back in his sheath, then hands them to him.

She watches him for a second and she realizes he's tensing up.

"Does it hurt that much? I've got a pain shot in here, it would probably help."

"No," he grunts. His hand tightens around the sword, and he looks at it like he didn't know it was there. She puts the water bag next to him, then she curls up on the ground next to him, and her consciousness fades slowly, until she's finally asleep.

* * *

(1)If you're confused, allow me to explain. Komodo dragons are eight foot long lizards that weigh around two hundred pounds and can eat eighty percent of its own body weight in one sitting (Which, obviously, would take it up to a good three hundred fifty or so pounds). This is not taking into consideration that their teeth and saliva hold bacteria that can turn a wound septic in a very small amount of time, and that said teeth are serrated and an inch long apiece. They also have claws as long as my fingers. And they can stand upright (leaning on their tails) and run fifteen or so miles an hour (which is pretty fucking good. I don't know how fast I can run, but even if I could get that fast, I couldn't keep up the pace very long). They are, in general, really dangerous.

What Meru and Hiei are facing is a _demon_ one of these, so it's about… Oh, let's say twelve or so feet long, five hundred pounds, has six inch teeth, matching claws, and I've decided it's poisonous and has two extra pairs of legs and can move faster than the normal monitor lizard. wave


	26. Fun Continues

_Fun Continues_

The night drags on. Me'ran's awake for bits of it. Hiei sleeps too, but the poison seems to be bothering him, and he wakes up frequently. He tries to move, each time, but he can't, so he goes back to sleep just as quickly. She, on the other hand, wakes up with him and then can't go back to sleep.

Two of the moons out here are close to full, right now, so she can see surprisingly well. It's almost half as bright as day, though the colors are somewhat dulled down.

Hiei's shirt was ripped through by the, what was it? Dokuja? and she sits back to admire for a second. She always thought he was kinda cute, in a weird way, with the bug-eyes and his face in sort of a hard-ass version of a pout. She can't help but admire the muscle and planes of smooth skin over his chest and abs. Kinda thick, considering his height, too. His face is what she notices most, though--It's so cute while he's sleeping. The red eyes being closed and his usually almost-scowling face is relaxed--looks much less dangerous than normal, and much more at ease, most of the time. Now and again, his jaw will tighten, or his eyes will screw shut, but he's still adorable.

Me'ran goes farther into the woods and takes a piss, then comes back to drink more of the poison. While she's sitting there, Hiei wakes up, and he looks at her with wider-than-normal eyes, and his mouth is slack. He looks like a kid who just had a nightmare. He slowly forces himself to sit up.

"Hiei?" she asks. He starts to pull himself away from her, but then he sees who she is, and he leans toward her. She moves closer, but then he falls and she has to catch him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. She almost forgets he's the same hardass that's tried to kill her three times, now. He reminds Me'ran more of that time she had to babysit and one had a fever dream and woke up crying for his mother.

He puts his head on her shoulder, and she moves behind him so she doesn't feel so awkward, hugging him, and she pulls him close to her, and she blows on his neck a little, until he finally falls still, and she lies on her side, keeping him close to her so he has to lie down, too. She picks their right sides, to keep the blood flow at a minimum from his wound. She lies with him, and she leaves one arm over his shoulders and puts her forehead over the back of his neck. She can't help but smile. Cuddling with Hiei, huh? Haha, at least I'm good at keeping secrets.

* * *

Hiei wakes up in her arms. Normally, feeling this would scare him, and he'd attack her, but his limbs are beyond his control. He wasn't sure who the hell it was, but then he recognizes the human's scent and he relaxes. He doesn't remember how he got here, and he's sure that he's going to forget that he's there at all in a few minutes, so it doesn't matter. He feels her cool skin over his arm and neck and her breath is going down his spine. This fact daunts him for a little while. How dare she, being his first thought. Damned human, she's taking advantage of him in his illness, and, dammit, he didn't give her permission to touch him. He wants to get up, but he's just too heavy to pick up. She's silent behind him, but he can feel her heart pounding hard against her chest on his back, not knowing that the fight for life isn't necessary. He feels this, and, suddenly, most of his anger is forgotten, probably with the help of the mental effects of the poison. At this point, she's drunk enough of that monster's venom to kill herself, and it's for him. She doesn't deserve any displeasure from him.

For the moment he's permitted himself, the time between now and when he'll be allowed movement of his own accord (assuming he doesn't die tonight) he takes in details of everything, giving himself something to grip later when he starts to feel death's fingers closing on him. Looking around, the grass is soft but still sharp and has etched its image into the skin under him. The tree over them blocks the moonlight and the clouds and the lightning. Breath colder than his skin, but still warm, is going down his spine in the most tantalizing, irritating way he's ever experienced. He loves the feeling (which is why it's irritating), and he can't help but dread when she wakes up and moves away. It's the only time breath has gone down his spine without belonging to someone about to cut him, and it's so nice... Her arms are cold, too, but it feels good. The white limbs are longer than he'd really noticed them ever being, and she's got them wrapped over his chest firmly. He wonders what could have inspired her to do this--she doesn't even like him. It feels a lot like--

She startles him when she whimpers and twitches violently in her sleep, then her hands close into fists. Her fingernails sink into his chest. It hurts, but it's a relief from the numbness. The blood she drew with one of her particularly sharp claws trails down his chest. The bleeding stops even faster than hers would.

"Sorry about that, I was tired," she says quietly as she draws her arms away from him. That harsh whisper. He suddenly remembers the stitches in her throat.

To his disappointment, she moves away from him and lowers him onto his back again, and she sits up and leans back. She takes another drink of the venom, and he watches silently. He wants to ask why, but she seems hell-bent on it enough that asking would be stupid, and he doesn't think he can talk anyway.

He closes his eyes. He wants to try sleeping again, but he's so afraid that he's not going to wake up. He feels her touching at his hair, and then her long, strong fingers weave into it, and she giggles a little when his whole body settles (traitorous lump of flesh), but he doesn't 'wake up'. Her nails against his scalp feel nice, and his mouth twists a little. Normally, death wouldn't be such a threat--he'd welcome it, in most times, but this is different. He has something to do, he has to protect Me'ran and take her back to her world.

The scratching of his scalp stops, and she lies back down with her back against his side, and he waits a few minutes. She's asleep, he thinks, but he can feel how her heartbeat is jarring her whole body. Then it starts again.

This has happened several times over the course of the night. He feels himself beginning to slip away, and he becomes afraid, once again, that he's going to die. His heart beats, and he begins to sweat, and he feels himself beginning to breathe uneasily. She wakes back up, probably because of the heartbeat, and she leans close to him, and she presses her lips to his forehead. She's not kissing him, but he's not sure what she is doing. Either way, she seems satisfied by whatever she learns, and she curls up next to him with a soft sigh.

"Just hang on 'til sunrise. Few more hours. If you don't make it, then I'll see you later."

He focuses on her words, and uses the sound to ground himself. Then he starts thinking about the way she just put it. Like death is nothing, Not that she'd know, she hadn't even developed the very basics of muscles control, much less memory, by the time she was supposed to die.

He lies there, admiring the sky. See you later. Like someone like her would wind up in the same place as someone like him. That hardly seems right. He smirks a little to himself, and he catches himself being pleased that she's here, right before he drifts off to an uneasy sleep.

* * *

The "few hours" that Hiei has to hold on take forever. Me'ran takes new drinks of the venom every time the feeling returns to her tongue, which is taking less and less time, and her heart no longer feels like it's going to burst, so she figures that she's alright, and this is going to work. Her fingers twitch fairly constantly, which will make this next part a pain in the ass.

She touches Hiei's arm lightly, and he seizes her arm with his right arm, and she lets him hold it and pets his head gently until he relaxes enough for her to do what she needs to. He isn't aware--she can see that much. His eyes are half-mast, and he's slack, other than the arm that's got a tight grip on hers. When she touches his head, he jumps a little, but she keeps doing it, and he eventually just lays back and lets go. He's still unaware of his surroundings, and she's worried he might be too late. But she saves the worrying for later--she didn't drink that much friggin' Windex-vodka just for the fun of it. Even if it is too late, there's nothing to lose.

The fang that she cleaned out last night is resting in the bottom of the water bag. She pulls it out, and she sits up and she pulls Hiei's arm off to the side and put in on top of the severed head of the monster-guy, and he puts a hole in the crook of her elbow at the artery, then she puts one in the vein in his wrist, and then she forces the point of the fang into the vein. He cries out and he looks at her. His face is still covered in sweat, and he looks more wounded than he ever did before, but he's more focused than he was.

"I'm sorry, Hiei. Welcome back. I'll be done in a minute." She puts her arm up to the larger end of the fang and she tries to let her blood leak into it. It doesn't work. She finally pulls the fang back out of Hiei's arm, then braces herself for pain. She grits her teeth and closes her eyes, then she jams the larger end of the fang into her arm. Then she puts the pointy end back into Hiei's wrist, and she lets her blood pump into him. She can only hope that his blood type is compatible with hers, or that demons don't have blood types.

"You're insane," Hiei informs her weakly as he pulls the fang back out of his wrist. She heals his wrist shut, then heals her arm shut. She cleans her and Hiei's blood off his arm with some of the water left in the skin, then she kicks the head of the dragon-thing away, then she cleans off her own arm and hands. Then she remembers hitting the ground, and then she doesn't remember anything at all.

The rest of the day, Hiei sleeps, and so does she. Every couple of hours, she wakes up to check on him. The swelling in his bites go down, but she's still too weak to heal them. The sweating stops, and so does his uneasy breathing.

When she wakes up, he's standing up, testing out his movements. She can tell he took something of a bath in the water over there. She sits up slowly and looks him over. He's alive and up and he's okay, so all is well. She allows a cautious happiness to creep into her and she rolls onto her back to admire the red sky.

"You're alive," he says. She doesn't think he meant to sound that relieved.

"Yeah," she agrees. "I am. And you are, too."

She gets to her feet and stumbles a little. He catches her arm and holds her steady.

"This way," he says, pointing. "We've got three treasures to collect, and then we'll be done and she can go home."

"What're you talking about? I am home," Me'ran chuckles with a slight smile. She's only half joking.

"Come on," he says. He takes off running, and she starts following him.


	27. Back Home

Hello again, readers.

So. I'm working on a Kurama story. Dominantly out of boredom, and I wanted to add a little bit of change to my Hiei routine. I wrote a Yuusuke one, once (It was an order from a friend. She has this high pitched voice, you see, so when she screams at me, she causes intense pain.) and I'm not posting it 'cos I was REALLY half-assing, and you can tell.

But anyway, I'm kind of looking for ideas for Kurama-story. I've got the girl in mind ((Yes, another canon romance, bite me.)), but I don't know exactly what I can do to them, because… Well, Kurama would be a lot easier to be romantic with than Hiei.

Suggestions?

* * *

_Back Home_

Riki is the last one holding anything they need to take back. Hiei wanted to let the Healer do this, but shortly after he found Riki, she let herself fall onto the ground and hasn't moved. He's giving Hiei a little trouble because of his toughness, and the additional armor he wears. The miniature fire demon hasn't even tried to use his sword, because he already knows how ineffective that is. Last night, he got hurt at the chest, though, and the Healer said something about him having trouble with heavy blows. The armor prevented cuts, but not strong impacts. So now Hiei's busily beating the hell out of Riki with his fists. He's not good at this combat, but he doesn't have an option. Riki's also landed a few blows on Hiei, because of the forced hand-to-hand combat taking away some of the evasive techniques he's so used to using. Hiei can't step in and attack and back off like he normally does.

Until, finally, Hiei punches him hard in the throat and he falls down, gagging.

"Healer," he calls now, pivoting at the waist to look over at the girl on the ground. She's lying on the ground on her side, right now, and Hiei can see she's tired, still, but she nods a little when she hears him call her title, and she pushes herself into a sitting position, then sloppily pushes herself to her feet. She moves forward and kneels next to Riki, who continues to gag and choke. It takes her a little bit of time to heal him, but she finishes. He, first, gives Hiei what he took, and then he turns on his toes and runs, completely ignoring his attacker and healer. As soon as he's gone, Meruran sort of crawls halfway before moving into an unusual crouch, duckwalking and then standing up and moving to Hiei, and she heals the wounds Riki managed to deliver to him.

After that, she leans on her knees and lowers herself back onto the ground. Hiei nudges her with his foot, not having the heart to kick her after she risked her life for him last night. "Get up, Healer," he commands. She stands back up, and she doesn't look at him, but he can see her face because of her height. She looks horrible, somehow. She's commonly pale, because of how long she stayed inside on her computer, but the glow her skin usually has is completely gone, and her jaw is slack, and her eyes are droopy. She leans a little over, looking worse than normal. He doesn't suppose that dealing with poisoning herself and blood loss is helping much with the exhaustion of having used so much of her ki in so little time. He starts to lead her towards the direction his Jagan is leading him, but a few steps afterwards, she sits back down. "Hiei, I'm sorry," she says. "I'm fuckin' tired. I can't keep going."

"Get up," he snaps impatiently.

The red swell of her power is smaller than normal --almost to the point of invisibility—and she glares up at him, holding herself up on her hands. The way she's arched her back and the way her arms are locked, supporting her weight, combined with the way her hair is falling around her pale face and blue eyes show him the exhaustion she's suffering. She looks like he imagines he did after he used the dragon. Even so, her mouth is tight and her eyes are narrowed before she gasps out, "Even if I could get up, I wouldn't. Fuckin' prick, I gotta rest."

Hiei goes to her and he's about to drag her to her feet, but as soon as he leans to take hold of her arm, her arms give out and she falls onto the ground, officially unconscious. He stands for a second, not sure what to do. Usually, when she is knocked out, she wakes up almost instantly. Hiei puts his hand on her neck to see if she'll stir, like he knows she does when someone touches her neck, but she doesn't move. Damn.

So now he's stuck carrying her in his arms, trying to figure out where the next portal to the Ningenkai will be.

She mumbles in her sleep and he looks down at her to see if she's woken up. While he's looking, he starts noticing in the midday light that she has numerous scars over her face. Indestructibility doesn't mean invulnerability. She's also accident prone. The last trip here and this one haven't helped.

They kind of give her face character, he decides somewhere in the back of his head. He doesn't care, the front of his head tells the back, but it isn't listening very well.

The stitches in her neck are holding her throat closed, though she's got her head tucked down and her eyes are closed. He wonders if she's going to heal right or not.

He almost feels guilty for waking her up to help him through the net. She holds open the barrier net thing, then tumbles out of the other side, and she starts to fall. He pulls her back into his arms, and keeps carrying her.

He catches himself thinking about how nice it was having her pet his head, and about how nice her skin felt on his while he was still poisoned. She's so cold, compared to him, too. And her sharp nails going through his hair felt terrific as they ran over his scalp, playing through the hair and pulling just a little when she got her hand snagged.

Half of his head gets mad at him for being such a pussy, but he decides to ignore it. She's off-limits, even if he did feel for her (and I don't, dammit.), or her for him (And she doesn't.). Not only does she hate him (if she hates me, why did she heal me?), but Kurama's as good as staked his claim until she sends him away for good (that selfish bastard.).

Not only that, but she's just a damn human. She's a little above the typical human, but she still has that ridiculous nobility problem and the horrific habit of being an allover good person like all the rest of those jackasses. Don't know what the hell the other three were thinking when they said she was best choice for her demonisms--They had no idea what that meant. Even Kurama had no idea.

She's just a healer. There's no reason for him to be this worked up over her, he tells himself as he crosses back into the human realm. He should just leave her here and go back, but something wants him to stay.

Kurama's waiting for them. He's sitting on a bench outside her complex with his knees crossed and his hands folded in his lap. If Hiei didn't know any better, he'd mistake this for being at ease, but this is Kurama. He's waiting, he's waiting for them, and he's getting impatient. He's probably been here since yesterday evening.

Hiei tries to move past the irritable fox-demon, ignoring him, pretending he doesn't see him and hoping he'll play the passive aggressive card and keep quiet 'til after Hiei comes back out, which will give him the opportunity to dodge the conversation entirely when he leaves through his balcony.

Aforementioned fox-demon's intelligence, while not forgotten, was not taken into account. He knows Hiei's plot, he guesses, because Hiei hears said fox-demon grunt his name to get his attention. Hiei detects the repressed rage in him, and he almost laughs to hear it. Kurama, losing his cool? That's strange. What's next? Yuusuke going to start practicing humility?

"Hiei," Kurama grunts more insistently

"She's sleeping, Fox," Hiei tells him quickly, hoping to keep him off his back. He doesn't stop moving, going straight to the stairs and starting up. Kurama follows him.

"Hiei, I greatly desire a word with you."

Hiei's mind translates this to the 'hold the fuck still and let me bitch at you' that he knows he means. Hiei keeps walking, partially just to piss off the red-head, but also to get her up to her room before someone sees him carrying an unconscious girl to an apartment room. Humans are such idiots, gods only know what the hell they'll think, and he doesn't need to get infamous in the human world as anything other than a demon.

"Why are you so worried?" he asks as he walks down her hall. Then he hesitates. Shit. He knows which window is hers (She always leaves it open for him, and she has a sun-faded red curtain), but he doesn't know which is her door. Kurama moves ahead and leads him to the right door. Hiei moves into the room and goes straight to her room. The bed's still out, and he puts her in it. Kurama moves and pulls the quilt over her, then closes her balcony door, then moves to the living room. He really does love her. How sickening.

"Are you going to kill me this time?" Hiei teases when he gets into the living room and closes her bedroom door. He's already planning to get out of the window if Kurama should attack, but the odds of Kurama attacking him for this slight are the same of her dying--it's possible, but implausible. Even so, he's still expecting at least a thrown something, but then Kurama lets his whole stance fall to one of submission with his shoulders and chin down. Hiei starts to take a step back, not sure what his comrade's doing anymore.

"Hiei, please," Kurama suddenly pleads. His face goes from one of silent rage to one of just plain... there's not a word for how pathetic this is. He's almost angry to see it, but he's too busy being delighted. Kurama? Begging? He wishes he had one of those... cameras... or whatever those things are, just to save this moment. If he were to lose all his memory, this face would be what he missed most. Fighting that swell of something like joy in his chest is almost as hard as fighting the grin that tries to spread itself on his face. He's not a cruel man by nature, but seeing someone suffer like this over something so silly, combined with watching Kurama, even in this human body, begging, it's almost too much.

But he doesn't keep talking. Hiei waits for him to continue with this pathetic display of feeling, but he doesn't, he just seems frozen. Maybe his pride reminded him that he is not a dumb human?

"Please what?" Hiei finally asks, not able to hide the mocking tones. Come on, squirm, Fox-boy.

"Please, stop disappearing with her. Don't play dumb."

"We brought her here to help us. I've employed her twice, now, which is more than any of you can say. If she didn't want to go, she is perfectly able to hurt me enough to get away. She likes it."

Kurama shifts on his feet uncomfortably, and the red-eyed one can see him trying to figure out an argument that he won't be able to counter without branching into irrationality. Hiei looks into his head and he has to step back out quickly. It's miserable in there. Surely he doesn't feel that strongly for her, come on, now, that's pathetic. Kurama senses Hiei's pride and he draws himself back up to his full height, not that it matters. There isn't much that wouldn't make him seem larger, now that Hiei's seen him in this state. His nerve has almost entirely failed him, but he is trying to get it back.

"It worries me. Between the two of you, you're reckless enough to really get hurt, and-"

"She's come back completely whole both times. She cannot die. She hasn't--"

Kurama suddenly looks fierce again, and Hiei almost completely forgets how pathetic he looked a second ago. "Hiei, someone tried to slit her throat, and someone that was not used to holding a needle had to sew it shut. Don't think I didn't see that. You cannot continue using her for your own causes if you're going to be putting her in danger like this. No matter how much power or strength she shows, she is only a human, Hiei. Even if she cannot be killed, she is still easily damaged!"

Hiei's stumped, and he opens his mouth to argue, but then something hard hits the wall opposite the door, right next to Kurama's head. He looks over at the source, and he sees Me'ran sitting in the floor with something in her hands.

"Goddammit," she barks, leaning against the doorway. Kurama cringes when she glares at him and Hiei's a little surprised at how good she is at looking pissed off. That's a very attractive look on her face, too, once he gets over that even one of his glares would be overpowered by this one. "I don't miss twice." A pause, then she continues, "I finally live by myself, away from the idiots my mother have let live with us, and I'm still waking up to people arguing outside my bedroom door over stupid shit." She rubs her eye. "How long have I been asleep, Hiei? When did we get here?"

"An hour. We didn't get here 'til a few minutes ago." Hiei tries to sound cold. Maybe Kurama'll get off his back if he knows that he's just using her for her powers, and there are no feelings whatsoever. That's probably what he's worried about, anyway.

"Mm. Okay, well. Fuck off. Kurama, stop being a pussy, and Hiei, stop being an asshole to the pussy. Get out of my apartment. Why the fuck are you in my living room arguing, anyway?"

He's mildly resentful at being called an asshole, but this is relieved when Hiei sees how hurt Kurama is at being called a pussy. He almost didn't notice that her voice is louder than that whisper she'd been reduced to because of the hole in her throat. Means she's healing properly. The rage in her voice is attractive, too, he lets himself think while he's at it.

"We were just-" Kurama begins bashfully.

"I didn't ask you what you were doing; I want to know why you're here. Mainly concerned about the 'here' part."

"He confronted me here," Hiei says defensively, nodding at Kurama. Kurama scowls, but keeps his mouth closed, because he's right. Hiei decides to tell her what they were arguing about so she'll take his side and tell Kurama to shut up. "He's upset about my recent employment of your abilities. He's probably been waiting here since you left."

Already Hiei can tell that it was a good idea. She drops her head against the wall and slumps even farther down. "Gods, and I thought you stalking me at home was weird," she grumbles, sliding to the floor. Then she looks dead up at Kurama. "Stop worrying about me. I can't die. If I wind up broken, I heal. If I didn't want to go, I wouldn't. Besides, coming home tired is proof he needs my ass with him."

Kurama sighs, and Hiei can see his jaw tighten, but he knows he can't win against her in an argument. She won't let anyone win, even if she loses with them. So he doesn't say anything. He just fumes.

"You really think I'm going to let that prat be the death of me?" she asks mockingly. "I won't let him, and he won't let him, either. He needs my sorry ass to keep his alive."

"I do not," Hiei barks defensively.

"You would have been killed by that poison if you hadn't taken me there," she answers, glaring at him. "Don't you even give me that shit."

"I wouldn't have been there in the first place if you hadn't gotten caught."

"And you would have died in that fucking house, and you know it--Your arm would have been broken, that stupid flyswatter bastard thing at the door would have crushed you, the door would have electrocuted you, that bomb would have blown shrapnel into your neck, and if you managed to survive all that, that axe head would have finished you off."

Hiei doesn't have any more arguments, and he shuts up. She's right. And those were just the things she herself kept him from. And the only counter he has is that without her, he would never have gone, and that's directly admitting cowardice.

Kurama finally bows, then moves out the door. She gets up and staggers back to her room to undress and go to bed. He follows Kurama. Kurama waits for him at the foot of the stairs.

"Hiei, please understand," he begins to beg.

"I do," Hiei responds. He thinks he does, anyway. If Kurama'd taken Yukina on any adventures, Hiei'd stop short of ripping out his soul, but only because he's not real sure he knows how to rip out souls. But that's different--Yukina is not a fighter, she's not a healer, and she's not Undying. This is stupid. "She can't die, Kurama. I know you managed to pull the idiot stunt of falling in love with her, but if you keep being over protective, she's going to hate you."

Kurama shrinks a little, and Hiei, deciding he's done enough damage, leave him to skulk.


	28. The Beginning of Change

_The Beginning of Change_

"Meruran?" someone's asking. Me'ran throws something at the door, mostly out of reflex, but also out of annoyance at having been awakened by human (or not so human) voices again. She's the only one with keys to her apartment, she's the only one that lives here, she doesn't have a real job, and yet she has yet to wake up on her own the whole time she's been in Japan.

"What the hell is wrong with you people that you don't let me freaking sleep?!" Me'ran demands, already rolling out of her bed. It's Botan. So, undoubtedly, they want her help, and she's fucking tired. Goddammit.

"I'm so sorry, Meruran, but we need--"

"Your help," she finishes for the blue haired shinigami. "How the hell did you manage to live without me before you started all this shit?" Panties, pants. Bra. Where the fuck are my shirts? All my black fucking---whatever, I'll just stain the stupid a-line. ((Note--A-line shirts are commonly known as wifebeaters.)) Me'ran tosses shit around a second longer, still looking for a black t-shirt while she pulls her underwear and jeans on.

"Meruran, are you alright?" Botan asks. She cracks the door and sticks her head in while Me'ran's pulling her shirt over her head. She guesses Botan heard her slamming shit around.

"Quit calling me that, my name's Me'ran," she grunts crankily, pulling on a pair of socks and stumbling over something she left in the floor a few nights ago to get to her boots. Then, last, she grabs her glasses and she goes out to the stairs down the hall. Botan runs after her.

"MERU--ME'RAN!"

"WHAT!?" Me'ran roars, turning all the way around to face the irritating pink-eyed bitch and cutting her off. She freezes and jumps back.

"Aaaahhh---never mind..." she says in her usual nervous cheery manner. Me'ran goes to the stairs and sees Yuusuke waiting there with Kuwabara. Well, she doesn't really see them as much as she nearly runs into them. She stops herself dead when she finds herself face to face with the white t-shirt over a very strong chest, and she looks up at Yuusuke's face.

"Mngh," she grunts at him, shuffling away.

"Morning," Yuusuke agrees. "Or afternoon, really, it's nearly noon." Then he pauses, and she looks to see why, and she realizes he's staring at her well-developed breasts. She knew she shouldn't have worn this fucking shirt. Where the fuck did all my t-shirts go?

"Don't make me kill you, Yuusuke," she pleads in whining tones. "I'll have to save your life after I do, and I don't feel like it." It's not really pleading. The tones are, she guesses, but--God, brain, if you don't shut up, I'm going to kill you, too.

"What's wrong?" Kuwabara asks cautiously, keeping his distance.

"I'm fucking tired," she whines. Then she looks at Kuwabara and she realizes that his shoulders are big enough to lie across, so she hops onto the sill where the windows to the outside are, and she climbs onto his back and his shoulders, laying across them and curling up. Kuwabara makes a squeaking noise, but she thumps him on the head and shuts him up.

Kuwabara starts down the stairs with her on his shoulders, and he does pretty well up until he gets down to the third floor when he nearly falls down, and she does fall down, over the side of the stairs, and all the way to the ground. She lands on her feet, but she falls down onto her ass.

"Are we going now?" she asks as Yusuke gets to the bottom of the stairs. Her eyelids flutter shut, and she lets them finish closing, and she leans on Yuusuke's shoulder/back.

"Are you alright?" Yuusuke asks. "You were asleep for a while..."

"Didn't you sleep for those two days you were missing?" Botan asks. "Where were you, anyway?"

"Good question," she says tersely. "Not answering."

* * *

The place they were sent reminds Yuusuke a lot of Genkai's, only there's some big demon here to beat up. He can't even remember for what. It was supposed to be just him, but Koenma and Botan insisted on Me'ran going (she doesn't want to, either, they should have just let her alone) and Kuwabara wants to go, too, because he likes feeling important.

Me'ran and Kuwabara both hesitated at the door, but they got over it pretty quick. Yuusuke doesn't feel anything, but both of them whine about "bad feelings". Which ain't much from Kuwabara, but Me'ran, according to crap Kurama and Hiei reported, doesn't normally get those unless the shit's really about to hit the fan.

And then he gets hit with something in the back of his head, and all three of them are getting swarmed, suddenly. Me'ran and Kuwabara, too. They seem to concentrate more on Yuusuke, though, and he's very quickly overwhelmed with so many little whatever-the-fuck-they-are's that he can't even see.

Then, after a minute, he's takes a blow to the back of the head that makes him see black with little stars, and he's down. His neck really hurts, now, too, and he feels like he's choking on his own throat. He's tough, though; I can live through a little... Man, that hurts. Kuwabara and Me'ran are still up, and Kuwabara's killing the ones that are still attacking him and he can see Me'ran holding her arms out with glowing red things coming out of her hands. Shields, he thinks. He tries to move, but something's wrong, and he can't. As Yuusuke looks up at both of them, he starts trying to move again. Come on, he can't have been finished off that quickly, he's Yuusuke Urameshi!

"Meru, what's wrong with Urameshi?" Kuwabara asks. He looked down at Yuusuke, and he's noticed something's wrong with him.

Me'ran looks down at Yuusuke and scowls. "Shit," she mumbles. Then she closes her eyes, and Yuusuke hears a shrieking noise that he thinks might be Me'ran's voice, and he suddenly smells a lot of blood. Then she looks around and she leans close to him. Her hand touches his chest, first, and warmth spreads from it to his whole body. It's quiet a second, then she looks at him again. He looks back, and he mumbles, "I can't move."

"You're kidding me. Does your neck hurt? Can you breathe?" she asks quickly, bringing her hands to his chin and pulling his jaw forward, not moving his head, just moving his throat out of the way of his windpipe,, allowing him a gulp of air. Aaaahhh...

"Yeah, neck hurts a little," he tells her. She scowls, then, very, very carefully, slides her hand under the back of his neck and moves her fingers up to the base of his skull, and the warm feeling spreads back over him, flooding him, and suddenly the tingling sensation of waking up starts in his fingers in toes (when the hell did they go numb?).

After a second of the healing, she asks him, "Can you move your toes?"

He pauses and tries to wiggle his toes. No good. He shakes his head. She sighs and holds it for a little longer. He continues trying, and then, finally, he masters it. "I got it," he tells her. She smiles and sits back. He swings himself to his feet (Whoa, I feel great!) and goes to check out what happened to the badguys.

What happened to the badguys was… Probably really painful. They've been crushed, literally. Between the red things and the wall, he guesses. On both ends, and the blood's everywhere and it's pretty gross in general. He wonders if she knows she did it.

When he gets back, she's still healing Kuwabara, who, apparently, had the shit beat out of him.

"Are you guys okay?" she asks. Yuusuke sees the dark under her eyes, and she stands upright, then wobbles and falls back against the wall and leans down onto her knees. "Answer," she requests. He hears Kuwabara confirm, yeah, we're all okay.

And after that, her hands fall off her knees and she begins to fall forward. Yuusuke moves under her with his back to her so she lands on his back. She's asleep. Out cold, for that matter. He tries to wake her up, but she doesn't even stir. Yuusuke and Kuwabara exchange looks, and then Kuwabara picks her up and puts her on his back.

"We have a job to finish. If this happens again, then you can run for help, and I can take her," Yuusuke tells Kuwabara. He nods, and then his ear twitches, and he moves to shift Me'ran's head so she's not breathing on it anymore. Yuusuke laughs.

After that, everything goes without a hitch, and everything's hunky-dory on the way home. Except a couple of things. One of them is that Me'ran is still sleeping. The other is that Me'ran is a shade of gray that Yuusuke usually associates with the color Toguro turned after he died.

"Everything okay?" he asks Kuwabara. "She's still breathing, right?"

"She's still breathing. Right on my ear, too. I'm worried, though" he confesses.

"Got a bad vibe or anything?"

"No, but I can sort of feel there's something wrong with her. I don't know what it is."

"Okay, well. I think we should take her up to Genkai's. That sound good?"

"Yeah. Think we should tell Kurama?"

The question makes him laugh. Even Kuwabara managed to pick up on that stuff, huh? Then again, he looks at her kinda funny, always has, he's not exactly that very good at being discreet in this particular territory. "You picked up on that, too, huh?" the Detective asks, unable to hide the grin.

"Well duh, it's obvious," Kuwabara answers with a grin like Yuusuke's own. "Kinda funny to see Kurama fawn like that, though."

"Yeah, it's funny, I never thought I'd see him so gaa-gaa over a girl," he laughs. Kuwabara grins.

"We could tell him she's dead. Like, one of those monsters just happened to be like her and stabbed her. We did that to you one time," the orange-haired one suggests.

Yuusuke remembers that instance all too well, and he hits the moron in the head for the offense, even though he got him already at the time of the offense. Kuwabara yelps and whines.

"We're not doing that to him. I don't like when Kurama's upset, he does this thing with his face, and it's kinda scary," Yuusuke confesses quietly, shaking his head.

"Yeah, good point, it's probably not a good idea to tick off Kurama," Kuwabara agrees.

So Yuusuke and Kuwabara go back to town to get to the train station. Kuwabara starts for the station on his own while the black-haired one goes to tell Kurama.

br

Some little kid opens the door. Yuusuke looks at him funny and wonders if he has the wrong house, but then Kurama comes up behind him.

"Hello, Yuusuke. Is something the matter?"

"Nah, nah, man, I just got something to show you at an old friend's house," Yuusuke says brightly. Kurama's kid brother's still standing in the doorway, staring up at him, so he has to be careful about the code-speak. "I'd have brought it here, but it's kinda big," he adds.

Kurama nods a little, and Yuusuke sees his jaw tighten.

"Did you have to work today?" he asks, probably trying to get more details.

"Yeah, just got off work, actually, me and Kuwabara and Meru," he answers with a brief smile, trying to look casual. This acting stuff is kinda hard. "In fact, Meru's the one that wants to show you."

He nods, then pats the kid on the back and pushes gently to move him.

"I'll come to see. Shuuichi, tell Mother I've gone with a friend," he says, moving through the door quickly. The kid tries to object, but Kurama is smooth about slamming the door in the kid's face, and he moves quickly down the street with Yuusuke moving just behind him.

"Dude, is your brother's name Shuuichi, too?"

"Yes, but that's not important. Is she hurt?" Kurama demands quickly.

"Not much--I think she took a knock to the head, but she's had a lot of those," he says, not sure why Kurama'd be this worried. Seriously, what's the worst that could have happened? She's real tough...

"What's wrong, then?" he asks, looking back at Yuusuke, looking a little relieved. Ah, good, he's not that freaked, he just was looking that way.

"Well, she passed out for no good reason. When Botan went to wake her up this morning, she had a hard time, and then Me'ran wanted to sleep, and when we got there, she passed out on us right after she finished healing Kuwabara. I thought you might wanna know."

"Hm. Thank you, Yuusuke. Does Hiei know?"

Huh? "Why would he care?"

"You don't know where she was yesterday and the day before, then?" he inquires, almost too coolly ((That is a word.)). His eyes kind of narrow, too.

"No, why? Where was she? Did he take her again?" Yuusuke asks curiously. He's done that, what, twice, now?

"He did."

"Ah. Why?"

"I don't know. I failed to ask him that, my goal was simply to get him to stop doing that," Kurama responds with a shrug.

Yuusuke stops to think about this for a second. Why the hell DID he keep disappearing like that? And... Kurama was getting this worried about it... And... I don't get it.

"Why's him using her power that bad? I figured she'd like being taken along to the Makai and crap. Oh. And you know that if you're not careful, she's gonna-"

"Reject me because I'm too protective. I am fully aware of that, but I am more willing to risk her affection for me than her life. It doesn't matter if she likes being taken to the Makai; it is not good for her health. It's a wonder just being there for that long hasn't taken any toll on her health. In fact, that may be what this is."

"Kuwabara's been to the Makai before, he was fine."

"He wasn't even there for an hour, Yuusuke. She's been there overnight twice, now."

Yuusuke finally gets curious. His behavior's way off the normal calm thing. "What happened? Why are you so worried?" he asks the red-head. "You see someone like her die or something?"

"Worse," he answers. The train station is in sight. Yuusuke wants to ask, but Kurama doesn't seem to wanna talk about it, so he doesn't. Kurama starts to run, and Yuusuke trots to keep up. Kuwabara's sitting on a bench, waiting, holding her in his lap with her head rocked back on his shoulder. The Detective sees Kurama sort of pale when he sees her, and he moves closer and he checks her heartbeat and her breathing, then he stands up and sighs and sits down next to him.

"She still okay?" Kuwabara asks Kurama.

"I'm not sure. I couldn't find her heartbeat, but she is breathing. I believe it's one of the points she's proud of, that her heartbeat is very quiet."

"Another latent demon?" Yuusuke asks.

"No. Koenma wanted to avoid another happenstance like yours, so he did extensive research on her background. Human, all the way through."

"Kay, good, I'd hate to lose that franchise."

* * *

The three of them take her up to Genkai's and put her in a bed. Genkai spends three minutes examining her, then shrugs and walks off.

"She's overworked. Leave her here, Yukina can take care of her," she says. Yuusuke sees Kurama scowl again, and he shrugs, then takes off before he winds up talking to Kurama while he's this upset again.


	29. Confusion

_Confusion_

Hiei found out about her condition via a pissed off fox demon while he was perched on the roof of the school.

* * *

_He's been looking for her for a day, but he can find no trace of her. She isn't at school, she isn't in her apartment, and she isn't in the Makai. If she's anywhere, she's well-protected, well hidden, or dead._

_"Hiei?" Hiei nearly jumps out of his skin and looks over his shoulder at the green-eyed teenager in the doorway. Bastard did that on purpose. "Do you know where Me'ran is?" Kurama asks now, ignoring the glare he's giving him._

_"No," he answers irritably. "I've been unable to find her, even with the Jagan."_

_"Genkai's house is well-protected, then. That's a relief," Kurama replies coldly. He did that on purpose. He knew where she was, that bastard._

_"Why's she at Genkai's? She did well enough with her training the first time that the old woman stopped teaching her before the allotted time."_

_"You must not know, then. Those two trips you took her on have worn her into hibernation. She's been unconscious since yesterday afternoon, after accompanying Yuusuke and Kuwabara on a mission, and she hasn't woken up yet. Genkai decided she was overworked."_

_His tones are cold and angry at once. Hiei can tell he's trying to get his point across--something like "do not use her powers anymore"--like having been put into sleep like that is bad, but that's ridiculous. His dragon wore him into hibernation--he just recuperated faster than she will because she's human and she's not used to having to work that part of her body back up._

_"She's at Genkai's, then?" Hiei asks for confirmation. Kurama nods and he takes off._

* * *

And now Hiei sits in the dark, watching her sleep. He hides when anyone comes in here, but that's usually only every so often when Yukina or Botan comes in to feed her the tea that Genkai and Kurama have formulated. It's night, now, so that's not a worry.

To his own surprise, Hiei's grown rather fond of watching her sleep. A part of him feels guilty for invading on her moments of vulnerability, almost like he's intruding. But it's made up by that weird bubble in his chest he gets when he looks more carefully at her. Her hair has grown a lot since she got here, and it spreads out over the bedclothes. He admires the color of it the way he used to when she'd sneak out. It's the strangest form of mysterious beauty when she shifts and the bedclothes move and allows the moonlight to reflect off her skin, making her glow blue in these pretty lines along her muscle. The muscle on her is smoother than it is on a male, he notices (except maybe Kurama, but Hiei's never seen him without his shirt), and he kind of appreciates that. Not that it matters.

* * *

He remembers when the four of them were watching her. He and Kurama got stuck on stalker-watch most, Kurama because he was most observant, and Hiei because he had the most free time. Koenma said Hiei could wreak what havoc he wanted in America, which is the only reason he agreed to do it. In six months, he learned all of her habits and personality. His main job was picking at her to test her courage and sensitivity. Dropping things, making noises, touching her to see if she noticed, seeing how sensitive she was to sounds or youki. This was difficult, until she got used to the eyes on her and stopped searching for him. It was harder to hide from her than normal people--she looked up.

In those six months, Hiei was watching himself grow to like her. Maybe even love her. He watched Kurama do the same thing. Kurama was very quiet about it, and if he hadn't known the fox-thief so well, he'd never have noticed. He began to grow more and more distracted, and Hiei watched as he would watch her, completely taken in and not even bothering with his duty of observing.

And he pointed something out to him, too, one day, while she was running her little obstacle course on the roofs of one of the schools.

"You like her," Kurama said simply.

"You're in love with her," Hiei answered. He smiled at Hiei, and he remembers thinking at the time about how... creepy... that was.

"I know."

* * *

And from there, everything went to shit.

So far, she's been asleep three days. She's woken up twice, both times at night, and neither time for very long. Hiei missed the first one, but Kurama was there for it.

Hiei's thoughts drift back to Kurama. He thinks this is Hiei's fault. Hiei thought the rage was amusing, at first, but now it's unsettling. Every time he sees the usually docile pretty-boy, or when he sees the red-eyed oni, Hiei feels the whole environment fill with hatred for him, and the glare is frightening. Kurama does it on purpose, he knows. He's letting Hiei know he is several centuries his senior, and he has been more ruthless in his time than Hiei has ever thought to be in his own. The will to harm him is held back only by the peace-loving human he's become in the last fifteen or sixteen years, Hiei's sure, and if not that, then only because he's been his companion for a little under half of that.

Hiei's thoughts start to drift again, but then she moves a little, and he's struck again with what Kurama fell in love with. She's still off limits, he knows, but the way she used to piss him off has faded, and the beauty of who she is has begun to stand out more. He's half afraid that she's still angry at him for the times he hurt her when he first met her. He was doing that to test her limits, to see if she would, or could hate him if he showed her he was a bad person. Koenma had said she had a very high capacity for—

Her eyes open, and she looks right at him. "Hiei," she breathes. "How long has it been?"

"Three days. A day since last time," Hiei responds automatically. She wriggles on the bed a little and then flops onto her back and sits up. She's been aware that she's been asleep, but she's never aware of how much time has passed, and a lot of the time, she doesn't remember the last time she woke up.

"Hhnnnngh," she groans as she stretches, and then she falls limp on the floor, limbs flopping where they fell. "Where's Kurama? He was here last time and the time before last."

"It's midnight and a school night. Kurama is sleeping like a good little human boy."

"Mm. That's okay. It's creepy to wake up with his huge green eyes bugging out at me." Then she pauses a second. "Yours are kinda buggy, too, but you're over there, at least. Kurama's usually close enough to kiss." She moves a little. "I don't want to sleep anymore. I'm tired of sleeping. But I can't stay awake. Talk to me. Please, talk to me. I'll fall asleep, I think, I bet, but, at least. I don't know. I don't like talking so much. I don't remember what I say. I know I talked last time I was awake, but I don't remember what I said, or to who. I think I sound weird, too."

She's done this both times. She's babbling, and her voice is light and ethereal--almost like the rest of her consciousness is in some other reality. It's not as annoying as he thought it was initially, but it's... He feels even stranger, listening to this. If he were to walk over and attack her, she wouldn't be aware of it. Her instincts would save her, he would be back across the room, and she'd wonder why whatever it was she did hurt.. It's just like watching her sleep--intruding on a vulnerable time. Only this is worse, because she's exposing more than just inability to fight, but even weaknesses, here. He's been tempted to attack, just to see how she reacts. When she's caught completely off guard, she moves before she's even aware of it, saving herself. But he doesn't for fear she'll remember and be angry at him again. He doesn't like the idea of having her angry at him, especially since her healing powers are as useful as they are.

He wishes she'd go back to sleep. He wills her to do so. As if to spite him, she leans on her knee and looks at him and smiles in the weakest way he's ever seen on a human.

Enough thinking. She talked to me. "I don't talk," he finally tells her. Please, sleep, go back to sleep, shut up and lay down--at least then you don't know I'm here.

"Well, if you don't talk, then you'll explode at the head," she giggles. "It'd be ugly, too, bits of Hiei brain and blood and skull go flying..." She holds up a closed fist, then opens her fingers all at once and says, "Boom!"

She then giggles again and rolls back onto the floor and curls onto her side. Her eyes close, then she snaps them open and shoots upright. "No, no, I don't want to sleep again!" she whimpers, though he's not sure if it's directed at him or herself. He watches her carefully, and she rolls onto her stomach and pushes herself onto her hands and knees, and then sits up on her feet doggishly.

"If you don't want to sleep, then don't," Hiei tells her tersely. She looks back at him and smiles in such a way that it nearly knocks him down. It's a weak, false smile, and on her face it's foreign. It doesn't have any of her normal strength or feeling in it. It makes her look sick.

"Your face did something weird," she giggles, sitting upright. Her teeth show when she grins to giggle, and the weakness of her face fades, making him feel better. He's surprised to find how much it relieves him to see that smile go away. "You know, I know more than you think I do. I see things you guys don't know I do. I know Kurama's behavior away from me and close to me. And I know how you act, and what's behind your face. You do that a lot, hide what your face is about to betray. I've only seen you actually in pain once, not including when you were poisoned. And. Haha. You look nice at that angle, with your head picked up that way. Oh, yeah. And do you know how cute you are when you're asleep? Like a little baby," she babbles.

She rocks slowly, moving slowly and carefully. Hiei's frozen, just watching her, at this point. She leans back too far and falls onto her elbows and laughs quietly, then rolls around to the front and tries to stand up. It doesn't work, so she stretches again.

"Hiei, darling?" she requests quietly. "Give me a boon and help me up. Oh, do you not like being called 'darling'? Your face went weird."

"You're not ready to be up, yet," Hiei tells her. He's right, and he can tell--her eyes are still drooping, and she looks exhausted. "No, I don't like being called 'darling'. My title is Jaganshi, and I don't want to hear you call me that, either."

She ignores the rant about his title. "So what if I'm not ready to be up yet? I haven't seen the sky in three days. That's long enough. Help me up so I can go outside." He doesn't move, but then she falls onto her belly and she looks at him and gives him a face that he thinks is supposed to be her rendition of what most humans call a puppy face. Children give this look to their parents or siblings or friends in an attempt to either inspire pity or sympathy. She never could do those very well. It's hard to pity a creature with the mien as her. But he knows that if she's trying this hard (and failing so horrifically) then she wants it, so he decides to let her have it.

He gets up and crosses the room and stands next to her. She's lying down again, but she is fighting with her eyes to keep them open. He reaches down and touches lightly at her hand, and she takes hold of his hand and his wrist in her other hand, and he pulls her to her feet. She stumbles, but she gets her footing back on her own. From there, she walks clumsily to the door and braces herself on the doorway for a second before she goes out into the central garden. He follows her closely. He's expecting her to fall asleep in mid-step, but she doesn't. Her head is turned skyward, and she's smiling that twisted smile.

"I love crescent moons," she mumbles. He looks up and sees that it is, indeed, a crescent moon. He still has enough moonlight to see with his natural eyes, but she seems rather lost.

He watches her rock on her heels for a second, and he takes the time to admire a little more of her body than he normally gets to see. Genkai or Yukina had stripped her down to her underwear to let her sleep more comfortably. He happens to know she normally sleeps in less than that, but he's never allowed himself to study this out of courtesy and out of shame of wanting to.

His eyes trace her face down to her neck where the scars from the stitches are visible, even though Yukina pulled them out and healed the wound herself. From there, over her torso and arms. He can see the changes Genkai wrought when she trained her. She looks much stronger than her clothes usually let her look. Scars decorate her body morbidly, whiter-than-her-flesh lines that stand out a little. He can see traces of the claws from the Dokuja, where she stuck herself in the arm with the wide end of the fang, the slit on the side of her neck that he himself gave her, and even more from the mansion, bites on her arm, shrapnel scars (and indeed, dark places where the shrapnel sunk too far in to remove), a spiral line down her left arm where she caught a wire on it...

Then he notices how much of her leg he can see, and how much of her belly, and her chest. He admires her figure, noticing how her waist pinches perfectly, and how the shape is perfectly hourglassed, and how well-endowed she is. The bones in her hips are visible, but only just, and he can see pieces of her ribs. Even when she was still in America and didn't do much, she was still a very powerful person, but after training with Genkai, she lost what fat was there, and gained a lot of muscle. It's kind of unnatural to look at, but the muscle is admirable if nothing else.

"You're staring," she says. She's not looking at him, so she doesn't know what he's staring at. He's mildly ashamed of himself and he turns his head.

"Crescent moons were always my favorite," she says, leaning again. "Well. Full moons make me feel good, but crescents are prettiest."

She leans too far and nearly falls down. He catches her, then helps her stand straight up. She smiles and pats his hair and walks back towards her room.

He's left there to stand and think for a few minutes. The thoughts concentrate dominantly around, "How do I get around the fox."

"Is she still awake, Hiei?" Kurama's voice asks. Hiei nearly jumps and his hand starts for his sword on reflex. Kurama was moving very quietly, and Hiei wasn't expecting it. Plus, he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be.

"I don't know," he mumbles, turning around. Hiei doesn't know what to say or do, now. He wants to tell him that she doesn't love him, and she won't, just so he can get a shot at her, but that seems too cruel, even for Hiei.

He sits down heavily, and he sighs. "I think it would be better if I didn't know..." he mumbles. "Not only is it not unrequited, but she likes someone else."

"What?" Hiei demands, confused. "Surely not Yu--"

"You're blind, Hiei," Kurama spits. He sounds pissed off at him again, and Hiei scowls at him.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"She feels for you."

Hiei almost laughs. That's stupid, especially to be hearing from him. But even so, it pisses him off even more. Kurama's deliberately getting Hiei's hopes up. "Oh, really?" he demands. "Tell me, Fox, how do you know that?"

He doesn't answer immediately, but he slumps. "Believe it or not, I'm not sure how I know." he finally sighs. "Something about the way she's behaved towards you pretty much the whole time we've known her..."

"Did it occur to you that she might just be more comfortable with me since I don't protect her every move? Or because she's not worried about facing a whiny, anal demon when she does something foolish when I'm around? Or even because I don't act like an overprotective parent? She's gotten into four serious fights with me since she got here, and every time, I hurt her. She doesn't forgive that much, she's not a saint."

Kurama stays quiet. Hiei can't say he's not at least a little pleased with seeing him humbled. He got his hopes up already. Kurama's known longer than he did that Hiei felt for her. He did it on purpose; he set out to make that shot at him.

"You're an idiot, Kurama," she says. They both jump, and they look at her. She's standing in her doorway wrapped in her bedclothes. Hiei wonders at the sudden modesty. "I smelled you coming," she says proudly. Then she says, "I don't feel for either of you."

Both Hiei and Kurama hear something in there that isn't right. Her voice wobbles just a little, sounds a little tight, and her jaw and tongue fight with themselves.

It means she's lying.

"You were always a good liar," Kurama says. "But we're not very easily deceived."

"_Fine, fine_. I'm only recently aware of it, and it doesn't really freaking matter because nothing ever comes of my little crushes anyway," she spits. "But either way--Kurama, stop being mad at him for it. It's not his fault. You can't make me like you while you're treating someone that should be your friend like a traitorous bastard."

Kurama freezes. "I haven't been treating him like... that," he says indignantly.

She rolls her eyes. "You have. I'm not blind. I'm not stupid. And I'm very sensitive to auras. Even I can feel it when you glare at Hiei. You even think it's his fault I can't..." she pauses to yawn... "Dammit, can't stay awake."

She doesn't move. Her eyes close and she nods, then twitches conscious again, then stands up. "I. Dammit. I'm. Dammit!"

And then she starts to fall. Both he and Kurama start for her, but Hiei's faster, and he takes her back to her room and lays her back in the floor on her stomach, and he goes to see Kurama, who is skulking at the doorway inside.

"She's right," Kurama sighs. "My apologies."

"I don't want apologies," she spits. "You can have her, I don't want her."

Hiei jump for the wall then goes to find something to eat.


	30. Awake at Last

Hey! Tell me--what's more interesting?

A.)Secondary character death and angst

B.)OC character death and angst

C.)A life and death struggle between corrupt humans and good demons ((Again, with the idea that demons are the good guys!))

D.)A romance/psychological bullshit story.

Please do not pick D, that's what THIS one was for. 

_Awake at Last_

Me'ran wakes up again on her stomach, spread out under her covers. Her eyes open, and she stretches. For once, she's not considering rolling over and going back to sleep. She thinks she's finally slept as much as she wants to.

"Who's in here?" she asks. She smells person, but she's not awake enough to know which person. "How long's it been? And has the sky fallen?"

"Yuusuke," Yuusuke says. "It's been few days since you woke up last time. You've been asleep for, like, a week. And no, the sky hasn't fallen, but I think it might, now that you're awake."

She smiles a little at the joke, and she rocks up onto her knees.

"Where are my clothes?"

"Here," Yukina's voice says. "I'm so glad to see that you're awake!"

She half looks at her and all she manages to get a good look of is her chin, nose, and mouth, and she freezes. Something seems so familiar about... And then she moves her head and Me'ran sees her whole face, and she completely forgets. So, instead of worrying about it, she takes her clothes from the pretty Koorime womanling and bow.

"Thank you."

Moving again takes some getting used to. And her clothes put up a hell of a fight. And when she gets up, she staggers for a whole three minutes, and she falls against the wall.

But then she stumbles to Genkai's dining area and sit down at the table. Shizuru is sitting there with her tea. "Oh, look, someone kissed Sleeping Beauty," she says through her cigarette. "And this happened to be the same day all four boys showed up. Now we'll never know who did it."

She flips Shizuru off and smiles a little and sits down in front of a cup of tea.

"Is this anyone's?"

"No."

"Good."

She downs it, then puts it down.

"Friggin'... hungry," she mumbles. What body fat she'd managed to gain back is gone, she notices annoyedly. There is such a thing as too cut.

"Your sisters fought to lose fat, and you're stretching to keep it?" someone asks Me'ran mockingly. Even if she didn't recognize the voice, she'd know who asked.

"Fuck you, Hiei," Me'ran singsongs with a yawn. ((Hey, it rhymes. sleep deprived))

Someone laughs, and she yawns again.

"How long was I out?"

"Exactly a week," Genkai says between drags off her cigarette.

She nods a little. "So, why did I sleep like that?" she asks.

"Too much ki use. You never used it before in your life, and using as much as you have in the last month or so has finally worn you down," Genkai answers. "You're probably sick to your stomach, too."

"Yeah..."

"Yep," she grunts. "Well, good morning, the rest of you get out of my house. Erufib here will be out of here when I finish with her."

"You make it sound like you're going to do something horrible," she whines.

"For all you know, I might," Genkai answers. "Go to the kitchen, pick out what you want to eat, then cook it. Not too much, or you'll knock yourself out for another week."

Me'ran figures everything out, she gets her system back to its norm, she starts eating properly, and then Genkai promptly kicks her out.

* * *

So she starts home. She gets to the train station, and she can see Kurama there. He smiles and waves like he's surprised and happy to see her, but she knows he was waiting for her. She smiles at him anyway.

"Did she teach you?"

"To control the new shit? Yeah."

He smiles at her. It's still early morning, but it's Wednesday, which implies that Kurama is skipping class.

"Why are you not in school?" she asks as she gets onto the train. He sits across from her.

"We're out, today. There was an earthquake that took out the power pretty much all through that part of the city. I think your apartment complex suffered a little bit, but not nearly as long."

Me'ran nods. "I'm gonna have to figure out school. If I keep missing the way I have been, I'm fucked. I guess I could always just quit and marry a creepy old guy, wait for him to croak and inherit his millions. I'll live happily forever. Or I could go to the Makai. I like it there."

Kurama makes a face, but then he fakes a smile.

"Demons fight to come here, and you want to go there? You must not realize how much danger lies in wait for hapless humans."

"I have less to worry about than the typical human," Me'ran declares proudly. He nods slowly then goes back to gazing out the window.

"I don't suppose you remember..." And he trails off, either not wanting to talk about it, or not knowing how to word it. Or maybe he's worried that she doesn't remember, and he doesn't want to remind her.

"Remember what? The discussion between you and Hiei and me?"

"Exactly," he says. He pales. It doesn't narrow anything down, but she can tell he's not happy about her remembering anyway. She wonders why he didn't lie.

"I remember that it happened," she lies. She does remember chunks of it, but not all of it. She doesn't care enough to remember all of it. She does, however, remember that she admitted her crush on Hiei--or, at least, they found out about it. "Other than that, there's not a lot there."

He looks less pale, and he smiles falsely again.

"Quit with the fake grins, they're creepin' me out," she says, turning in her seat and putting her feet in the one neighboring her.

"My apologies."

He smiles and bows, then hops off the train at his stop. She's got one more to go before her transfer.

Once she gets to her apartment, she decides she doesn't want to be here, and she hops out the balcony and starts roof hopping until she get to her rooftop. She's gotten used to being out in the sun, lately, so she doesn't feel as weird lying over the top of the building with her arms folded behind her head. She knows someone else is up here, and she knows he's not human, but other than that, she doesn't care. She doesn't let her guard down, but she's not going to let him bother her too much. What's he gonna do, kill me?

She lets her brain wander a little. She has to figure out if she wants to bother trying to go "with" either Kurama or Hiei, even though she knows that'll cause problems in any direction she goes. When she's not saving Hiei's life, he's trying to end hers. And Kurama bugs her. If she goes with Hiei, Kurama'll be a bitch about it. And if she picks Kurama, who really is a better choice, Hiei will abandon her.

She could try Kurama out; see if he lightens up a little. He seems to be trying to, anyway, though he's still real worried about her. That's okay, though.

She starts imagining Kurama on a date with anyone. He'd take her to somewhere romantic, pull out all the stops, and go all for the wooing. Or would he suddenly turn into a bumbling human boy? Surely to god, he had a human behavior somewhere. The demonic cold to him that left him sitting silently and thinking, rather than smiling, laughing, joking, being nervous around girls...

Then again, Hiei's no different. He doesn't have the human bit to think about at all. He doesn't have any nervousness. He shows his emotions through little behavioral vents, but only in little leaks, as if they weren't there. She could see them if she focused, she decides. He does make those faces. That's another reason to give a point to Kurama. He actually has feelings, even if he does keep them tucked away in a neat little drawer and plays with them when he has the time to.

So, does she go with someone who is genuinely cold, or does she go for the one that is only half genuinely cold? Or does she just wait and fucking see? Kurama and Hiei are almost ready to duke it out over her, from what she's observed. She likes Hiei better, because he's cooler, and definitely more interesting, but Kurama would be a more suitable lover, even if she doesn't like him as much. She could achieve balance and go with both, but Hiei'd kill her, and Kurama'd kill Hiei.

Whoever it is sharing the roof with her decides to talk. He startles the Healer, but she suppresses the urge to jump.

"You know why people stay in high places?"

She sits up, now that she's brought out of her thoughts, and she crosses her legs. She can't really see him, but she still knows he's not human.

"No, why?"

He smiles. She can see that. He picks his head up, and he looks at her, and she recognizes his face. Ayoshi, she thinks.

"You were the one whose leg I had to reattach," she says. "I remember you, now."

"I remember you well, Lady Healer."

"Mm. You gonna tell me why people like high places?"

"Well, there are different reasons for different people. Among humans, there are the ones hiding, and there are the ones who feel themselves superior to the ones on the ground. There are some who simply are above the ones on the ground and can't figure out how to get down. Put a different way, there are different ways up. Some build ladders, some have stairs, and some are born up there, and can't find their staircase. Hiei didn't tell us anything about you, so we were left to find out about how kind you are while we trusted our lives to you. The only promise that we got that you would do it was that Hiei explained that you are recklessly a good person. You've caught many interests. So, which are you?"

She smirks. "Smart. I don't meet many of you people, nowadays." She thinks about it. "Born up here. No staircase that I can find. Or maybe I have found the staircase, and I don't trust it."

He smiles, then drops onto the level of roof she's made herself comfortable on.

"You're not a bad guy, right?" she asks him cautiously, remembering all too well Asano's warning.

"There's no such thing as a bad guy. However, no, I wouldn't give you or your friends reason to track me. I simply enjoy the human world more than my own."

"I don't have friends. I never grew to like them that much."

"How odd," he says with a smile. "My Lady Healer, would you do me the grand favor of accompanying me to the Makai?"

She stands up and looks him over. She's not sure if he's trying to trick her or not, so she decides to gauge if she can hurt him or not. (Refusing outright doesn't even come to mind.) He's about Kurama's height, human-looking with brownish red, slicked-back hair; pale olive skin; gangly, long, stretched out, almost. Skintight pants that allow her to see the muscle wrapped around them, but his shirt doesn't allow her to see anything other than the narrowness of his shoulders. He looks like she could take him.

"Alright," she agrees simply. "You know you can't kill me, right?"

"I'm fully aware of that."

"Better to make sure. Idiots have tried, and it usually winds up painful on both ends."

He goes down the stairs, and Me'ran follows him. There's a portal down here. Both of them jump through.

She lands on the other side on the top of a large castle turret, surrounded by several other demons, male and female. Me'ran scowls a little, but this isn't entirely unusual.

"Very good, Ayoshi," a female voice says. "That was remarkably quick."

"It wasn't my doing. I simply had to ask. Lady Healer, I apologize for the minor deception, but I am not the reason I asked you to accompany me. May I introduce Lady Sazuna."

He bows to the healer, then moves away.

"Well, you could have warned me, I wouldn't have said 'no'. Shit, Hiei was eight times as rude about getting me to help rob Sawada-sensei--he kicked me in the ribs," she says to him. Then she looks at the woman. She's a rat demoness, roughly six feet tall, kind of reminds her of Freya from Final Fantasy IX, only she's wearing leggings, and a skirt and a long naked tail that dangles, though her hair is silver, and she has the elongated face and everything.

"You're probably the coolest-looking demon I've ever seen," Me'ran hears herself say uncertainly with a grin. She bows after that. "Lady Sazuna."

She gives a little bow back. "Lady Healer. I've heard a great deal from you from a few of my men. You're the one that Hiei's started carrying around with him? I expected a little more in the department of looks."

"There's no mistaking her," a couple of voices say. She chuckles a little.

"Well, that's uncalled for. Why am I here?"

Lady Sazuna smiles again. "I need your help. Your healing powers are remarkable enough that my men suggested you by name. Well, Kani and Ayo did, anyway. Sano couldn't remember your name, but he suggested "Lady Healer" first."

Me'ran chuckles a little and ducks her head and shuffles back and forth a little.

"One thing before I employ you."

She puts her fist under the healer's left breast. Me'ran grunts as she feels the metal slide under and through her ribs.

She chokes for a second. "OW!" she finally cries, putting her hand to the bleeding wound and looking at the blood. "What the hell was that for?"

"Heh, you are immortal," she says cheerfully. "Can you heal it?"

"No, I can't, I can't see under my damn boob, why couldn't you have gone for my damn intestines or something? I know how to fix those!"

The rat-woman laughs quietly, then pats Me'ran's shoulder. "My apologies. If you weren't immortal, then I would have had someone heal you and you'd work with me anyway. I wanted-"

"To test it. Fucking. Demon. Psychos," Me'ran curses quietly and waits for herself to stop bleeding. She sits and waits quietly, but she can feel eyes on her back. "What are they waiting on? Me to die?"

"I have a few human flesh eaters in my employment," she says. "I promised that if you died, they could eat you. Come on down, I'll show you the hospital and explain the situation."


	31. New Wards

_New Wards_

The situation is a war. She's trying to take territory for herself, and the defending team is being particularly difficult. And that's why Me'ran's here. Sazuna wants Me'ran to help keep her troops alive. And she, without thinking too much on it, agrees easily.

It's been four days. The hospital is nice. She doesn't get much of a chance to explore it, though. The room was half full when she got there, and that means there are a lot of people.

She pretty much stays busy, too. Non-stop stuff been going on. She catches sleep when she can, but the room she got came with a living alarm clock named Jinta. He looks like a little goblin, about two and a half feet tall, and naked, which lets her see a lot of bluish-black mottled skin. She learns to get over his nudity in under a few minutes. He's useful.

Lady Sazuna oversees Me'ran for a whole twenty minutes, then leaves her under the supervision of the other two doctors here, both of whom are not really that great at anything but healing healing, which is good, because it spares her the ki expense, and she can learn new things and teach them new things. She prefers hands on work.

Me'ran has no idea what's going on out there, but that's not her job. Her job is making sure that their souls stay firmly attached to their bodies. Since this isn't her war, and pretty much anyone can take her home, there's no worry, and she minds her own business and heals the ones that come in.

* * *

"Lady Healer Me'ran-sama!" shrieks Jinta, bouncing on odd feet, pointing at someone. Kani. He was in with Hiei's crew, and he remembers her, but she doesn't remember him. Kani's not his real name, but she doesn't remember what it really is.

When he came in, he had a spear sticking out of his abdomen. He's humanoid with weird traits, blue skin with deep jade scaly bits, and horns, and black hair that is normally kept in a ponytail, but has been let down so he's not so uncomfortable. His eyes are yellow, but he's only opened them twice. He's sort of handsome, too, and he's recovering well, though he's only just beginning to wake up, and he's been here for two of the four days she's been here.

Me'ran moves and sits on his bedside and twitches her leg to pull the rolling cart to her. There's water on it, and various medical supplies, so she keeps it tied to her ankle so she doesn't have to push it around.

"Lady Healer," Kani says with a smile when she puts a cup of water in his hand. He smiles a little, and she uses his pillow to pick his head up.

"Be glad it's a slow day, I'll have enough time to sit down," she says brightly. "Good to see you awake. And you've stopped attempting to bleed to death!"

"You're not funny," he chuckles. Me'ran smiles at him again and pats his arm.

"Are you feeling better?"

He nods, sort of, and she pats his arm again.

"Alright--"

"Me'ran-san!" someone cries in the hallway. She gets up and slips the rope off her ankle, then runs out to the hallway. She picks up the guy someone's dragging up the stairs and carries him back to the room with all the beds in it. He's not bleeding too badly, but his breathing is bubbly.

"Someone give him something to bite," she requests as she lays him down. He chokes and coughs, and she waits until someone's given him something to bite before she cuts a hole into his upper abdomen and shoves her hand into it. From there, she finds his lung, and the hole in it, and the blade in the hole, and she pulls the blade out, folds it into her hand, and heals the hole at once. She withdraws her hand and heals the holes, the little one in his ribs, and the one she put in him. And then, to expel the blood in his lungs, she pushes once on his chest, forcing all the air, and blood, out of his lungs, and he breathes anew. The stifled screams finally stop, and she puts the blade on the tray while she slips her foot back into the cart's rope, and then she goes to the fountain on the wall to washes her hands.

More commotion outside warns her that someone else is coming in. She goes to meet them, but then one of her three nurses staggers into her with a cut wound up the length of his chest. She recognizes that kind of wound easily, and since someone's in here, but no one's freaked out about it yet, she's half-sure she knows who it is. First things first--the wound's shallow, not meant to cause real damage, but enough to hurt him. She butterflies it, then sends him inside. She hears a female scream, and she goes down the hall.

"HIEI!" Me'ran roars as soon as he comes into view. She sounds twenty times angrier than she means to, but she can't say she's not happy for it. He jumps and looks at her like a little kid who just got caught with his hand in the candy jar after bedtime.

She hits him in the top of the head hard enough to get him to step back and duck and cover his head, and she picks up the arm he just removed from her nurse, and she reattaches it. She bows gratefully, but Me'ran stops her and picks up her face to look at it to get clearer answers. "Did he get anyone else?"

"No, ma'am, we were just--we thought he-"

"It's alright. Go check on Kani, he was awake, and I left him rather quickly."

Hiei's glaring daggers at Me'ran, and she hits him again. Then, after a deep breath, she lets loose.

"WHAT THE MOTHER FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE FUCKING DOING TRYING TO KILL WHAT LITTLE GODDAMNED STAFF WE HAVE?! WHAT THE FUCKING HELL DO YOU NEED THAT'S SO GODDAMNED IM-**FUCKING**-PORTANT?!" He shrinks a little more while she screams at him, and she hears a few whispers and giggles at the doorway to her medical ward. She turns and glares at them, and they scatter. "AND YOU LOT FUCK OFF!!" she bellows, just for good measure.

She's about to continue screaming at Hiei, but before she even turns around, her hand moves and there's an impact on her palm, and she turns to face him. She's got his fist in her closed hand.

"Trying to take a cheap shot, too?" she sort of screams. He glares. "You worthless asshole, I ought to-

"Lady Healer Me'ran-san!" Jinta shrieks, dancing in the doorway. She forgets all screaming, turns her back on Hiei (not even bothering to look back at him) and she trots to Jinta. He's pointing at a bed on the end, hopping on odd feet. It's the only one occupied over there, so she goes straight over to it.

Her name is Hana. She took a blow to the base of the skull that damaged her medulla oblongata, and Me'ran just can't do brain surgery, and there's no way to heal it without doing so. Her body temperature's unstable, and she'll stop breathing without consciously doing so, and her heartbeat's gone completely irregular. She was hurt before she got here, but she's on her last legs, now.

"Ah, Lady Healer..." she says breathlessly. "It's time," she adds. All rage is forgotten, and she feels her eyes burn with the tears behind them, but she smiles anyway and she pats Hana's hands. Me'ran's kind of made it a thing, she doesn't like to see people die, but she won't let them die alone. Even if she can't sit with them, she'll get someone else to. Fortunately, only two other people have died in four days, between Me'ran and the other two healers.

"Alright. I guess I'll see you later, huh?" Me'ran asks with a weak smile. "A little ache, a little cold, and then quiet."

Hana smiles at her and pats Me'ran's hand. "You're so cute. And sweet. It was adorable listening to you swear at that boy."

Me'ran almost laughs. "Sweet? Hm. You're sweet, too." She smiles again, and it's quiet for a while, and her eyes close, then open again after a minute. "You know... it's not so bad..."

"What isn't?" Me'ran asks, patting her hand again.

"Dying... It's much warmer and more painless than one would think. I suppose... that's because I'm in here... And... Thank you. It was nice being in your care..."

"See you later," she says quietly. Me'ran feels her shut down on the bed, and she gets up and brushes herself off. Jinta's looking up at Me'ran. His big eyes are half-watering, too, but only because of how fond of Me'ran he's grown.

"She wanted to be eaten. Come have the crew take care of her body, and find some flesh eaters."

"Yes, ma'am!" he says with an exaggerated bow before running. Hiei moves out of his way, and she sees the look on his face. She considers hitting him again when she spots the wound across Haru's chest, but she's no longer in the mood. She goes over to the chart on the wall and erase Hana's name.

"I knew you were the healer they were talking about," Hiei says, like it's a triumph.

"Shut up, Hiei," Me'ran answers, washing her hands again. She'll make a round before talking to him.

He stands in the middle of the room while she does so, watching her circle everyone and make sure they're doing alright, and then she goes to her chair at the head of the room and turn to face the wall and props her feet up on it.

"So, Hiei, darling," she says mockingly, just to piss him off. "Is there anything in particular you wanted, or did you attempt to murder the staff because you wanted to?"

"Don't call me darling."

"Do me a favor, and spit out whatever business you have with me," Me'ran commands, rolling her head back and glaring at him.

"I was sent to find you. You've neglected your school and your duties as our hired healer. Kurama thinks I've managed to kill you, and he's let Yuusuke in on this, and Yuusuke's being equally pushy, and as soon as Kuwabara stops being such a dunce and catches on, he's going to be a complete ass about it. And I still want your help." Then he pauses. "You have blood on your face."

"Well, I suppose I can neglect everyone here just so I can help you steal shit. No." Me'ran puts her feet down and turns in her chair to glare at him. "If I was to leave more people would die, and the lady who runs the show would hunt me down and kick both our asses inside out."

She gets up and goes to the fountain and runs her hands under the water, then rubs at her face to get off whatever blood he's talking about. That bastard, what room does he have to be such a fucking bastard?

"You can't die, why are you worried?"

"I try to avoid pain, which is hard to do around you. Plus, I like it here."

"Hn, people die every day in the Makai. Why should these be any different? They're just-"

"Hiei, I told you already. Heartbeats don't make people. Plus, they're nice. And third, I would like to help everyone dying, but a lot of you still run on the codes of animals, the strongest survive, and I just don't have that power. I do what I can."

He looks mildly impressed, under the annoyance.

"At least write a letter to Kurama. I'm becoming more and more afraid that his rationality has completely gone in his feeling for you."

"Whatever."


	32. It's Over

_It's Over_

A week and a few more days pass. Hiei becomes a regular helping hand around here. He's fast, sure, but he's not too bright. The most he can do is go get whatever Me'ran needs quickly. That, and he follows direction very well when she puts him on the spot.

"Hand me that scalpel."

"What's a scalpel?"

"The very little spear-looking thing."

He puts the scalpel in her hand, and she looks to make sure, then she starts to cut away at the flesh on the demon's chest, and she pulls it open.

"Hold the skin back," she tells him. He does so almost without hesitation, but even he looks mildly disgusted. Me'ran reaches into the hole and she pulls out the fistful of stones that someone managed to put into his ribcage, and she heals what internal damage there is, then she sews him back up and moves from the bed to wash her hands. Hiei still looks disgusted, even while he washes the blood off his fingertips.

"Come on, you've torn people into pieces," she objects, leaning and looking him in the face.

"I didn't bury my hands in their guts," he objects.

The only problem with Hiei is that he needs to sleep more often than she does. Not more sleep, just more often. She can stay up and monitor people for three days straight, when necessity calls for it, but only if people don't need healing. When people do need healing, she's limited to about thirty-six hours, and then she'll collapse on the floor. However, she's developing skills and increasing her power (according to Hiei, anyway) and she's still getting stronger. And she likes it here. She has a constant job and a constant need for her presence, and people here adore her, as well as her fellow doctors, and a lot of her patients.

After the first week, Sazuna visits her ward.

"Ahh, Meru-Healer-sama!" she sings cheerfully. Hiei (who is currently being Me'ran's bizarre doppelganger) looks at her, and she hears him snarl at her. He's probably unhappy with Sazuna for having Me'ran abducted.

"Sazuna-san," Me'ran answers quietly. She'd be nicer, but she's worn the hell out--this is thirty-third hour of conscious, and she's been healing people. She's been swamped, and that's the only thing keeping her awake.

"Wow, you look terrible," she says sweetly. "You've been doing so well, here, I was thinking of a change in plans. Would you mind being made into a field medic?"

"Are things going that badly out there?" Me'ran asks softly. She apparently starts to lean one way, because Hiei takes her arm and steadies her.

"You don't want to send her out there," Hiei warns.

"And why is that?" Sazuna asks. "Who are you anyway? Ahh, wait, I know who you are. You're the one that made her scream loud enough to hear outside the castle," she says with a smile. "Useful, though--you're really protective."

"She's useful to me and her little lover-"

"He's not my lover!" Me'ran hisses vehemently.

"The man waiting for her to come back would be pissed off if I was not dead, and she was."

"I can't kill her," Sazuna says with a light smile.

"Friggin' psycho," Me'ran adds.

There's a moment of quiet, while Sazuna's head begins to tilt and the smile on her face grows.

"What the hell are you staring at, woman?" Hiei demands unhappily.

"You two make a cute couple," she says simply. "Anyway, what was that you were saying about not wanting to send her out?"

"You don't, because she's a bleeding heart. She won't be able to refrain from trying to heal both teams. Any wounded man she comes across will receive her attention."

Sazuna pauses for a second, then whirls around on one foot. "Yep, you're right, not interested in sending a bleeding heart out into battle," she singsongs.

* * *

Later that day, Me'ran and the other two doctors are absolutely swamped. She's under the distinct impression that Sazuna is getting her ass handed to her out there, but Me'ran doesn't see her, and she doesn't ask the men because she doesn't think it's proper to ask them if they're losing the battles, even if she didn't know the answer. Plus, it's not her damn business.

Second week of work. It's been a while since last time she was swamped, and a few days since she's had to stay up for more than twenty-four hours. So, naturally, she hears a lot of commotion outside, and she goes to look, and she's suddenly aware of the fact that today's going to be very busy. In a few minutes, all twenty-two of the vacant beds are taken, and most of the chairs for the walking wounded, and the whole room is filled with cries and screams and shrieks.

"Me'ran-sama! HELP!" one of the fellow doctors pleads. Me'ran runs over and holds the shaft of the spear while they saw it off, then forces it through.

"I need you to--" he begins to add.

"Jinta, get him what he needs," she answers, running back to the one she left.

She goes back to the demon with the cannonball hole through his whole left side. She doesn't have time to do anything but heal it, so she does so, enough to the point where someone else can burn new flesh on.

She picks someone whose arm she reattached up off a bed and put him on a chair next to it so she can lay down another demon that has, literally, a hole in his chest. It's about the size of her fist, and it goes all the way through. He's panicking--his legs are twisting, the blood is getting all over her while she's trying to heal it. He's screaming, and his arms flail, trying to wrap around her in his frenzy. The demon in the chair next to her looks over.

"Is he...?"

"Do me a favor and don't ask, and hold his arm down or something, he's panicking pretty hard," she commands. He would be alright if he'd stop trying to grab her! Two other demons that have already been healed and can still move rush over and hold him down. She heals his lungs and his spine and ribs...

And then in the next bed, she has another one that's screaming, but this one's in more of a frenzy, probably because of the blood. He's already been strapped to the bed, but one of his five arms hasn't been put down, because they ran out of belts, and she starts trying to fix the mass of flesh that should be his leg, but three times, he knocks her down when he punches her in the head. She falls down, and she waits for her head to stop hurting, then she starts again. Hiei eventually takes hold of the arm until she finishes.

The carnage is awful. People are missing limbs, chunks of their whole bodies, necessary organs are hanging out. One guy's intestines are pulled out just so she can untangle them, and she has to put someone else's heart back together. Me'ran's sure he's one of her kind.

Slowly but surely, the chaos dies back down. All the beds are still taken, but a few of the chairs have been freed up. She makes a few sleep just to keep them quiet and happy. The newly discovered talent is pretty cool--she can heal them in such a way that she can fix the chemical-producers in the brain to "break" temporarily so they can sleep better.

People still come in and go steadily, well into the night. She's fallen asleep on her feet twice, but she keeps working determinedly until, finally, they stop. She's done. She's healed all she can and lost all she will. The thought alone almost knocks her down. Hiei's close behind her, and he takes hold of the robes she's been given, and he keeps her upright. She walks towards the wall she normally sits at, and she hits the floor.

"I see your work is cut out for you," Hiei says. He's now sitting down against the wall with his legs straight out, and his ankle's supporting her neck, and she's facing him to keep the light from the windows out of her face. "But why are you staying here? And don't you have a bed?"

"I like being needed," she mumbles to him. "Don't you?" He grunts, and shifts his leg while he's trying to get comfortable against the wall. She half-asses at swatting his knee. "Stop moving. My bed's through that door, but I'm resting until I feel like moving again.

He grunts again and twitches his leg just to bug her. Me'ran shifts on her shoulder and closes her eyes and sighs. Hiei moves again, and he lays down on his side against the wall, and leaves her pillow-less, but then he tosses her his cloak, and she gets to wrap it around her with bits under her head and neck while she lies on her stomach. It's a hard floor, but she's exhausted.

Me'ran lies there for a while, reflecting. She lost a lot more people in the last twenty-four hours than she has in the last week. There were seventy, today. She lost twelve. I healed everyone I could, she reassures herself weakly. At one point, when the doctor saw that she was getting tired, he requested that she stuck to people she thought she could save. That just cut really deep, and it made her feel really bad. But the worst was when they were delirious and they tried to hurt her. She took at least four knife wounds on her arm and she had to waste some of the bandages left on herself, and she had to give herself stitches over her left breast.

She falls asleep while she's still reliving the day. The only reason she knows she was asleep at all is because she wakes up. Hiei's still out and there's a strange figure standing over her.

"Me'ran," the woman says. Sazuna. "You lost a lot of my men."

"I'm sorry," she says quietly, getting up, then falling back down. Hiei twitches, suddenly, and she thinks the sudden motion bothered him.

"You tried," she says quietly. "I am here to dismiss you."

"The war is..." she has to pause--she can't stifle the yawn, "over?"

"Yes," she answers quietly. "What can I do to repay you?"

"Nothin'. If I didn't want to, I wouldn't have done it," Me'ran answers weakly, letting her head down. "'sides, if it's over after you got your ass kicked this hard, I'm guessing you lost."

It's quiet for a minute, and then Sazuna leans closer to her, and she sees Hiei's sword glint in what little light there is, and suddenly Sazuna has a blade pointed at her throat. She puts it down slowly, then looks back down at her.

"Do we have to leave now?" Me'ran asks the rat-woman. She shakes her elongated head, sending her rumpled white hair into a mess around her face.

"No. We have until tomorrow night to clear out of here---the castle has been seized---but we have bartered our passage out of here with the men you healed. Some of them were on the winning team. Thank you very much, Me'ran-sama."

Me'ran closes her eyes, and she feels a stranger pick her up and put her in her own bed before she goes back to sleep.


	33. Not Going Home

Yeah, sorry for not updating in three days. It's been a whole few weeks since I've done that. But I'm busy, I'm writing yet another Mary Sue ((and it's not a Hiei one, holy fuck. I'll have an even harder time getting people to go to that one, because Kurama fanfics largely suck. People seem to prefer to think he's not as straight as he could be. Granted, even I don't think he's totally straight. A thousand years is a long time to go without getting at least a LITTLE curious.

Anyway. I'll actually get to something good in this one sooner or later. You see, I have this intense appreciation for blood and guts. It just takes a while to show. ((Didn't, at first, but then I kept thinking of stuff I wanted in the story...))

Ja matte. -wave-

-R.F.

* * *

_Not Going Home_

Me'ran wakes up shortly before Hiei, and she gets up and stretches. An instant or two after she finishes stretching, Hiei seizes her arm and pulls her along.

"Hey, I don't want to go home yet!" Me'ran whines, pulling away from him as he starts across the field the castle was planted in.

"Who said I was taking you home?" he responds, turning to face the Healer-woman and narrowing his eyes. "The only place I'm taking you is away from here. You don't belong here, and you don't need to be here."

She chokes on her response for a second, trying to figure out a good comeback. "Hey! I belong there better than here or in a trap-filled cross-breed between a mansion and castle!"

He scowls then moves behind her and pushes her forward lightly.

"What the hell's wrong?" she demands grouchily.

"Nothing," he grunts quietly.

"Does this have something to do with the fact that you like me, too?"

"No."

"Then what?"

He scowls again, then changes the subject. "You should have taken payment from her. You at least need new robes. Those are covered in blood."

"Well, what do you suggest?" the human challenges, growing tired of his snippy attitude. He tosses something and it hits her in the back of the head, and she turns and catches it. A pouch with little coins in it.

"Even demons change out of their blood-soaked clothes. Of course, we bleed, too. Wonder what exactly you are."

Me'ran sighs. He's being mean for no reason, too. He's desperate to get her to leave him alone with the questions. "Where's somewhere to buy clothes, then?"

He moves in front of Me'ran and takes off at a slow run.

"You know," she mumbles as she takes off on the run and follows Hiei closely. "It's been three months since you guys talked to me for the first time. At that time, I could only just lift a hundred and fifty pounds with my arms, I knew twenty words of Japanese, not including numbers, I sat on my computer all day, and I had never given anyone stitches, much less taken their hearts in my hands and make that stop bleeding in under fourteen panicked beats. I'd never been across an ocean, and my future's been shot out of a cannon into a far away land."

"So?"

"So thanks," she says matter-of-factly. "Tell that passy-bitch I said it, too. Or tell Kurama to tell him."

"What?"

"Oh, come on. I'm doing exactly what I've always wanted to. I'm bilingual, I've saved over a hundred lives in the last week, I can carry someone twice my height and four times my weight, I can and will fight, and I am in a world completely unconnected with my own, surrounded by demons."

"So?"

"Shut up, Hiei."

He does. For a while, anyway. Before long, he looks at the human girl and mutters, "You know, Kurama will be upset with us for not going home immediately."

"If you're trying to get me to go home, you're welcome to go to him yourself and explain that I don't WANT to. ... How'd you get over here, anyway?"

"The Kekkai's being taken down, little at a time," he explains. "Who said I wanted to take you home? I was pointing it out because you seem to be under the impression that here is a better place for you than there. Better yet, your little comrades like you personally, rather than just the healer."

"They like me here, too, shithead. I know those smiles are not just, 'Oh, I'm saved.'"

Hiei smirks, then points at a town. But he seems reluctant to even get onto the road into it, and when she gets close enough, he just hops into a tree.

Me'ran spends a little time being surprised by how human-ish this is. She's not too surprised, though. Not all demons are flesh-eating monsters. A lot of them are, but so are a lot of humans.

A clothes shop is easy to find, and she goes in to pick out a black hakama, a red keigoki, and a pair of boots styled like tabi. ((Think Kenshin's outfit from Rurouni Kenshin. Then change the bottoms to black, the top to blood red, and then give her brown ninja boots.))

"You look ridiculous," Hiei snorts as Me'ran shuffles back out of town. She tosses his little money bag back, hitting him in the back of the head with it, then start to tie her hair back. Damn, it's gotten a lot longer in just these few months...

"I like it," she answers lightly. "It's really comfortable. I considered a kimono, but you can't run in those, and that'd be a bitch."

"Hn. Do you want to go home yet?"

"No."

"I don't know what you expect us to do here."

"Nothing. For all I care, we can go back to that field we first tried to sleep in and just lay there and admire the bugs. I just don't want to go home."

He snorts again, but Me'ran can see something appreciative behind his face...

He leads her there easily, and she goes out to the middle of the field and lies down and closes her eyes. It's only mid-afternoon, so the sun is still overhead, but it's a very pretty sky, and the sun isn't as mean to her as the earth sun is. So she just lies there peacefully and stays comfortable.

She naps off and on, and every time she wakes up, Hiei is sitting on his branch in the tree, looking forlornly up at the sky. Something looks wrong with his face. So she decides to distract him.

"Why did you help me?" she asks.

"Huh?"

"When I was playing doctor. You helped. I want to know why."

"Hn," he says at first. Then there's silence. She waits a bit, then sighs and gives him an annoyed look before he finally finishes.

"I couldn't stand there and watch. You're pathetic when you lose one. Killing someone was ugly, but that was so much worse."

Me'ran gets confused. She tries to figure out why, but she has no idea how the hell that could possibly be worse. It also reminds her of killing Touka, which kinda pisses her off. He was aiming for that so she wouldn't ask anymore questions. He avoided the subject deliberately. But she sees through it, and she still wants an answer, so she continues to press, "Why was it worse?"

He looks bugged.

"You wept for them," he finally says. He wants to say more, but he doesn't. She wonders what, but she doesn't ask.

Instead, she asks, "What the hell does that have to do with you, though?"

He doesn't say anything at all for a long time, until he finally sits up and moves to a different part of the tree before dropping to the ground. He looks like he's struggling to come up with an answer before he mumbles so quietly that Me'ran almost doesn't hear him say, "Call it chivalry, but seeing women weep is deeply disturbing."

Anything she was thinking is gone, and now she's staring straight up at him, trying to see into his face to see if he's lying, hoping she'll see some trace of something that'll say it was.

"You?!" she blurts before she can bite it back. He gives her a look that would kill someone that wasn't Indestructible. She, having already said what she was thinking, decides to explain a little of herself. "I mean. I get pieces of it all, the whole bad-ass thing, the real coldness and the fake, and the whole threatening thing... But you, the hard-ass, kill-you-as-soon-as-look-at-you, I'm-fine-I've-just-been-poisoned-and-am-now-dying Hiei doesn't like seeing women weep? What the hell is under that hair of yours? You've got to tell me after that."

He draws his sword. But she's not scared. He can't afford to cripple her, and he can't kill her.

"Please?"

He grunts and vanishes. She only just realizes he's kneeling next to her when he feels the cold demonic steel touch the front of her throat, just above the first scar she got from the male twin.

"Hiei?" she whispers, choking on her throat for the fear. She waits for him to cut her windpipe so she can't talk anymore, but he doesn't. She remains frozen anyway. "Is it that bad?"

He doesn't say anything for a long time, and she can hear her own pulse ringing in her ears. Even remembering that she can't die doesn't make it easier to accept that he's got a blade to her throat, and she's just pissed him off.

Then he pulls the sword back and puts it in his sheath, and he sits down right in front of her. She lifts her head cautiously, shifting so she can cringe behind her knees.

"If you tell anyone what I am about to tell you, I will kill you. I will skin you alive, smash your skull open, eat your eyes out, and take out and boil your brain until there is no trace of it left. If I can't do those things, I'll have someone else kill you, and then I will do those things and commence to mutilating your corpse so badly that even your soul will be shredded."

Me'ran's not very calmed by this, and she's still afraid for her life, but she feels better knowing he's not about to try to kill her anymore.

"Alright."

Hiei doesn't look at her the whole time he tells her the story. He doesn't include certain parts, but he does explain the details he can. It explains bits and pieces, too, and Me'ran has to figure it all out. He tells her about his mother, but deliberately dodges why she couldn't keep him; that's why he can't stand to see women weep. He tells her about his sister (though not who she is) and how he met Kurama; he also mentions Kurama's girlfriend, of whom she seems to remind him. He tells her about being rejected by everyone because of the blood thirst; that's a part of why he likes her, because she had a twist on the same problem at home. He tells her about pretty much everything, and then he goes quiet and he sits back, and he stares even harder at the ground to his left than he was when he was telling the story.

"You know... that explains a lot," she says quietly. She'd hug him, but hugging isn't really a Me'ran kind of thing to do (She's really bad about not showing affection well), in addition to the fact that he would very easily stab the shit out of her. "Thank you."

Then she lies back on the grass, and he vanishes. She wonders where he's going, but she's not about to follow him. He probably feels kind of shitty, and she imagines he's off venting, somewhere. He managed without her for however long that story took place over, he'll be alright. She rolls onto her side and puts her sleeves over her, and she tries to sleep so she doesn't keep remembering all that... shit. No wonder he has issues. She feels her eyes burn and her nose aches, and she weeps for him. She's not even sure why. She's not bawling, but quiet sobs choke themselves out, and her chest hurts, and her nose runs and aches, and her eyes leak tears and hurt, too.

* * *

Hiei tries to resist the urge, since he knows it would displease that human brat, and he doesn't want to do that, but he really, really wants to go kill something, right now. 

He's mad at himself. Come on, a dumb little human bitch managed to get his whole story out of him? He wasn't even under a spell or anything. She didn't do anything but ask him, "Is it that bad?" and his balls shriveled up and fell off or something, and he just dropped his sword and told her everything!

It was like she really felt for him. Like she was sorry for him, and she understood. In six months, he knew most of what there was to know about the solitary brat; she would probably be closest to one that could understand, one that could stand rejection and not be that hard about it. It really was a reason Koenma picked her. Because she could deal with it. Whatever was dealt to her, she could deal with it, as long as a tree or a building was around to climb. She was strong, but not hard, as he'd become. He decides that it's because she's female that she stayed as soft-hearted as she is.

She didn't show anything after he finished the story. She just lies down and let him leave. Like it didn't bother her. He's not sure what would have pestered him more, if she'd started weeping for him to stop halfway through, or if she did what she did and just rolled over and went to sleep.

How the hell did she get it out of him in the first place? Not a damn word to beg! She just asked, "Is it that bad?" and he just... Ugh. Disgusting human girl, stupid feelings, this is so stupid.

He run through a camp just to piss off the demons in it, and he waits for them to give chase, and he runs for a second, just like when he was little, and stops, then turn and kill all three in one blow. The resistance on the sword is satisfying, but it's a hollow victory, another meaningless murder. The action makes him feel a little worse on a different level, though he feels better about the Me'ran thing.

He walks back, being in no particular hurry to see her again. If she'd seen that, she would have been upset, but he's still beyond caring. He's a tad lost in the chaos that has become his mind. He thinks about telling her what he did, just to make her feel bad, but he doesn't want her angry with him.

He sort of wishes Kurama was here. Kurama would know what was wrong and attempt to talk to him about it, even if Hiei was quiet about it. He always knew. Me'ran, sweet and caring though she was, would keep all her suspicions quiet. Of course, he knows what caused this, and he wishes he were wrong.

He returns to the field and walks over, and when he steps into the brush, he hears her voice, weak and shaky for some reason, call, "Hiei?"

He grunts loudly enough for her to hear, and there are no more vocalizations from either of them. He goes straight for his tree, but on the way over, he sees her clearly in her spot curled up in the grass. She's still curled up the same way she was earlier, which implies she didn't nap again. Her eyes are red, and so is her nose, and her lips are bright pink from where she was chewing on them. Something's wrong with her, but he's not sure what to do about it.

"Are you okay?" she asks him. "You didn't have to tell me."

Dammit. She sounds so pathetic. And she let him leave... And she was weeping, but she waited for him to leave... He remembers what Kurama told her after she killed Touka. She was a good person. "Weeps for the wicked." Something bothered her about the story enough to get her to weep for him.

"I didn't want to tell you," he spits quietly. He discovers that he's angry at her for asking, then weeping about it. This is all her fault, and so is her weeping. Dumbass shouldn't have ever asked.

* * *

Something's bothering him. He's angry. Me'ran doesn't want to ask about what, so she rolls over again, and fixes her sleeves, and she stares out into nothing, waiting to get tired enough to sleep. 

"We're going back to your damn world tomorrow," he barks.

"Alright," she agrees quietly, still wondering what she'd done.

And this is all either of them says until the next morning.


	34. Back Home Again

_Back Home Again_

All the way home, Hiei is very unhappy. He doesn't look at the human brat, much less talk to her. Not even the usual grunt is sent her way. He just woke her up a little before dawn by kicking her in the ribs, deliberately breaking one, and then dragged her along until she started being able to ignore the pain of breathing.

When Me'ran gets to her world, she lands on the roof of her apartment complex. Hiei disappears shortly after landing. She shrugs it off and goes down to her floor. She feels her reiki flowing in her, making her feel so much warmer than normal. She guesses it's something to do with the emotional turmoil.

"What th---Me'ran," Yuusuke breathes as he steps out of his apartment when she passes it. "What the hell do you think you're doing, you trying to give me a heart attack? Why are you doing that with your reiki?"

"Don't be so self-important, there are lots of people I can give heart attacks to, why would I be aiming at you? I'm not doing anything; I just don't know how to tame it."

"Where'd you get those clothes?" he asks, not bothering to acknowledge the smart-ass comment.

"The Makai."

"Is that where you've been for the last two weeks?"

"Yep," she answers tersely, going through her perpetually unlocked door, ignoring anything else Yuusuke has to say. Fucking Hiei. Bastard.

Yuusuke comes through her door and hovers next to it. She turns to look at him and glares.

"What?" she snaps irritably when he doesn't say anything. She knows it's not his fault that she's upset, but she's trying to get him to go away, and she doesn't care if he will or won't forgive her at the moment.

"We've got a mission later today, now that you're finally here. We'll pick you up later," he says cautiously.

"Fine," she says. "Get out."

He does so quickly. She goes to get a drink of water and then sits on the floor. Being back here is weird, and when she thinks about America, it's like she's never been there at all. Funny, she finally found somewhere she felt at home when she was in an alternate dimension. Kind of sucks, here. Too many people too far from their instincts.

She considers changing her clothes, then decides against it. She can stand looking weird for the sake of comfort. She likes the smell of them, the air of the Makai, and the grass she slept in, and something strange that she doesn't recognize, probably the smell of the cloth itself. She decide that she's crazy for wanting to be somewhere that demons live, but they're not that bad, after she thinks about it. Hell, a lot of them are friendlier than humans.

She starts picking up what mess there is before she goes to lie down on her balcony and stare out at the sky for a couple of hours.

The staring is spent lost in thought, mostly, until Yuusuke walks the balcony edges until he gets to hers. She starts a little as he moves into her visual range, and he grins. "You ready to go?"

"Sure. Who all's going?"

"You and me, should be," he answers. "Anyone else that shows up. Kurama'll be by here soon, bet anything, he's been---Hey, Kurama!"

Kurama's on the ground. She perches on the wall of the balcony, and she drops off the side. Yuusuke calls after her, then decides to take the stairs. She catches herself on alternate balconies until she gets low enough to just fall. She gets there before Yuusuke, because Yuusuke is a wuss.

"Was it Hiei that-"

"No, actually, I've been playing doctor for a rat-woman in the middle of a territory war. What's this trip about?" She changes subject in an attempt to keep the fox-demon from getting bitchy at someone who is supposed to be his friend again.

"Nothing, really. Another demon," Kurama answers. But he still looks annoyed. She's not sure what about. She suspects he thinks she's lying. Or maybe he's just not happy about the being gone in the first place.

"So... who is it?"

"He's looking for us. We don't know his intentions, but over the last few nights, all three of us have felt a strange ki signature following us, and we've all spotted strange figures. Spirit World has finally reported that we need to find a Tsukioka Sho. Intelligence tells us that he's very, very strong. Strong enough to rival Yuusuke."

Yuusuke runs up and pats Me'ran's back hard. "Well, let's go! Come on, I don't feel like waiting!"


	35. Not Invulnerable

_Not Invulnerable_

Me'ran follows the boys through town. Kurama's kind of set the mood to a glum pace, what with his furtive looks in her direction. Me'ran remains fairly unresponsive to Yuusuke's attempts to cheer her up. Finally, they arrive at what was apparently the destination--a very large sort of courtyard. There's a set up of a miniature garden in the middle (Me'ran can see what was probably once a fountain), and all's quiet, really. There are a bunch of people around, so the human, the human-turned-demon, and the demon-turned-human take a seat where they all can see all around the area.

After a long period of silence (Kurama's sitting and looking deep in thought, Me'ran's got her eyes closed and is trying to sense out whatever this threat is, and Yuusuke's apparently just looking around), Yuusuke gets bored or annoyed and sits back and looks at the other two. "Do you feel anything?"

"Not yet," Me'ran mumbles. "Where am I supposed to be looking? What am I looking for?"

"Me. Look over here," a voice says from the left. Me'ran first thinks that his voice is strangely high pitched for someone evil, but her thoughts are very unimportant, right now--her body starts moving almost the instant she head it, and she needs to start controlling it. She's already on her feet. He's taller than her, probably a little taller than Kurama, and his blonde hair is curly. He's kind of cute, if one cuts out the malicious smile that is oozing negative charisma and pointy teeth, and ignores the fact that one can see death in his eyes. Something in Me'ran's chest goes cold, and she recognizes the bad feeling tracing a claw over her lungs.

"Oh, hi," Yuusuke says brightly as he approaches the guy. "We're here to make an appointment with om--"

The guy interrupts when he punches Yuusuke in the face and knocks him flying. Everyone scatters.

"That's cheating," Yuusuke whines as he gets up, rubbing his jaw. "You're supposed to warn a guy before you do something like that!"

"My deepest, sincerest apologies," Sho says mockingly. "Maybe I'll tell the red-head that I'm about to steal his seed packet-" and his arm shoots out and he grabs Kurama's hair and digs around under his hair and pulls out a small little... well, it looks like a bag, but not really--"and throw him about fifteen meters that way." And he flings his arm out, sending Kurama flying.

Yuusuke's gotten back up and gotten to him, and he punches him right in the solar plexus. It does a little damage, but he just smiles and knees Yuusuke in the stomach. Yuusuke's sent skidding backwards.

Me'ran waits a second (Kurama landed badly, but Yuusuke took a greater blow), but Kurama's already on his feet, so she starts for Yuusuke. As she starts to move, but Sho puts his foot down on hers, and she falls onto her face. She starts to get up, but she can't. Then there's a pressure in her back, and she can't breathe, and she feels her back stop resisting his foot at the same time pain blossoms across her back. Then it gets eight times worse, and she tries to scream, maybe alert the boys, but she still can't breathe. Her hair pulls, and there's a stretching sensation in her whole body, and she comes to the realization that she's not in her original one piece, and she screams after she finally takes in enough of a breath. She swings a little as Sho's weight twitches, and there's a glint of a blade, and then she's too hurt to notice anything. Whatever he does after that is not known to her, and she tries to move. Her legs don't obey, but her arms do, and she grips his arm in her hands. There're sharp pains in her back and her side, but her only goal is keeping him from doing anything else to her. He's got her hair, so there's not a lot she can do, though. He twitches his weight again and swings his arm back, then slings her forward. Then she soars through the air and hit the ground and roll and skid. She finally stops after a little while, and her mind twists and panics as she suddenly become aware of the fact that she can't get back up.

She tries to move, but she can't. For the first time in her life, she can't get back up. A fear that she'd never known grips her heart and chokes her, and she starts to cry out and whimper, or try to. After she calms down a little, after she realizes she's not dead, and she can still sort of move, but not her legs, she relaxes a little. Alright. Okay. Okay, okay, okay... I'm okay. I can't die. I can't even bleed.

She opens her eyes, and the spill of black and red blood on the ground is what she sees first. She's lying in a puddle of her own blood. I'm bleeding, she slowly realizes. That's my blood, I'm bleeding, I'm actually bleeding--I'm bleeding bad, did he get my liver? Oh, god, the blood's black, he got my liver, oh, and I'm still bleeding, he's one of my kind, he's one of us!

Footsteps run over to Me'ran, and then a second pair. She can see green and magenta.

"Me'ran," Kurama breathes worriedly. She whimpers loudly, and she tries to look up at him, but when she moves, it hurts. Familiar footsteps, Hiei's, sound close, too. She tries to talk, but she can't, because she can't get her mouth to cooperate. Plus, she can't breathe that deeply.

"Kurama, can't you do something about this?" Yuusuke says quickly. Hiei leans close.

"She's not dying. Don't be so afraid for her, Fox," Hiei says softly. "She can't."

But I can, Hiei, and I am, please, help me!

"He could be one of her kind, too, Hiei," Kurama warns.

HE IS, GODDAMMIT, NOW LISTEN TO FOX-BOY! OF ALL THE TIMES YOU'VE READ MY MIND, YOU DECIDE TO NOT READ IT NOW!? YOU FUCKING BIG-HAIRED, FAT-HEADED, BUG-EYED PSYCHOTIC MIDGET, I SHOULD DISSECT YOUR ARM WHILE IT'S STILL ATTACHED!

"Then do something about it, then we'll do something about him," Hiei spits. "Then we'll worry about her." She feels something touching over her side, stretching the skin. She guesses he's got something closing the hole.

"We'll be back soon, okay?" Kurama says. "I'm sorry."

Loud footsteps sound even louder than before, over her still form. "MAN, URAMESHI, WHY---What the heck?" It's Kuwabara. He's standing close enough that his shadow is over her head.

He leans down and scoops her shoulders into his arms, but an intense pain shoots through her back, and suddenly, she can scream again--it's being wrenched out of her by instinct and pain--and he drops the girl quickly. Her head bounces painfully on the concrete. A bit of blood splashes up when she lands back in it. Am I bleeding that much?

Yuusuke hits the ground next to her, growls, gets up, and leaves. She can't see the fight, but from what she can tell, her team isn't doing too hot.

She's getting a little dizzy, and her head swims. She tries to move, but her back hurts, and she can't force herself into more pain for an exercise in futility. It's not that she can't move; it's just that she doesn't want to. (Well, she can move, but only her arms, and that's basically useless with a broken back, and she doesn't want to finish bleeding out.) Her consciousness is starting to slip, and her brain attempts to panic, but she's too busy being lost and confused.

She tries to breathe a sigh of relief when she hears the bad guy's shriek of pain and defeat, but his crying out in pain continues. He's not dying.

"He's one of them, too," someone says quietly. He sounds scared. Then someone slides on their knees next to her. "Me'ran," he adds. Kurama. Hiei's near them, too, but she can only smell him. Kurama's hand touches near her nose and mouth. He's checking for breath. She bites his hand to let him know she's alive. Yuusuke gives a little laugh.

"He's one of your kind," Kurama informs the womanling quietly. She sort of nods, but she really wishes she could say, Tell me something I don't know, jackass, now, I'm fucking DYING, here! "Can you move?"

"Nn..." She fights with her lungs until she finally gets enough air to sigh, "No."

Someone picks Me'ran up carefully, and when she looks, she sees Kuwabara, but as soon as he pulls her weight up off the ground, her back pulls, and she screams. Kuwabara starts to drop her, but someone else holds her up.

"Don't drop her, you idiot!"

She feels a sword being pushed into her hand, and she closes her fist around it. Then Kuwabara carries her a few steps. Every motion jars her back, every time he puts his foot down is felt like sharp stabbing pains all up her spine, and the only reason she doesn't scream is because it hurts to even try building up the air. A few of the attempts to scream fall out of her throat in the forms of weak moans. What happened to that nice numb feeling from before? Why can't she just sleep and not suffer?

Someone moves her arm and she feels something under the blade. She lets her arm's dead weight force the sword down. She's not sure what's down there, but she can't see it, and she drops the sword.

"Now what?" Kuwabara asks.

"We take her home. Yuusuke, please call Botan," Kurama says quietly.

Kuwabara starts to walk, and it hurts so badly that one of the screams she's been trying to let out finally throws itself out of her. The cry of pain startles Kuwabara so much that he stops moving.

There's no discussion after that--just a lower, quiet voice that barks a soft, "Here," and then Kuwabara kneels and Hiei takes her from Kuwabara. He doesn't run much steadier than Kuwabara walks, but he goes a lot faster. She's in her apartment before she realizes it.

Hiei puts her on the floor in her living room, then rolls her carefully onto her stomach so her wounded back is up. Botan comes in through her bedroom, so Me'ran guesses she's flying.

She starts thinking about how funny it is that she was the one that got hurt this time. Not just a flesh wound, either, like the guys always get, but she's actually dying now, isn't she?

There's a strange warmth in her side, and her mind clears, but she still can't move. Botan's face is suddenly in view, and she can see tears welling up in her eyes. She pets Me'ran's head gently.

Oh, come on, I'm not dying. I won't die, even if they kill me. You ought to know that. I'm not going anywhere--have a little faith in me, would you?

But as she opens her mouth, the air just kind of falls out. The warm feeling comes back shortly after Botan leaves her side, and she feel a hand on hers at the same time warmth spreads over her back. She feels herself returning, but not well. She tries to open her mouth, but it doesn't work again. Her eyes drift close, and she opens them again.

"She can't die, can she?" Kuwabara asks. "She can't. That's why she works with us."

"There are more of her kind than of Yuusuke's, Kuwabara," Kurama says softly. He's the one petting her hand. "The one that dealt the blow was just like her, and the Indestructibles can kill each other. That's why we couldn't kill him, but she could."

"Yeah, like... uh-oh."

Shut up. I'm not dying. Someone cover me with something, and make sure it's not white, so I don't have to fight with the blood, later.

"She wants a cover," Hiei reports. He's sitting near her, too. "Not her bed, it'll stain," he adds. "And she told you to shut up; she's not going to die."

Someone picks Me'ran up and carries her to her room and wraps her in a spare quilt and lays her in the floor in her room. She lies there for a bit. She kind of wishes someone else was a doctor. She also wishes the pain in her ribs and back and side would go away, too.

"We could probably knock you out by some means," Kurama suggests. "You can't eat or drink anything in your condition... But... give me time..."

_Want to be knocked out?_ Hiei's voice in her head asks.

Yes.

There's a sudden pain and impact, and her head hurts really badly.

"Nnnnnngh," she groans to report that it didn't work.

"Hiei! You can't do that--"

Kurama continues complaining, but what Me'ran hears is an irritated Hiei. "Goddamned Indestructibles, can't even knock them out without trying to kill them."

Kurama is still bitching. "She was injured by another of the Undying, Hiei, she is too weak, right now, and even if she wasn't, sleeping now when she has so little blood and she's only human--"

Another impact, and this time, it works. She's out cold in a second.


	36. Am I Dead?

_Am I Dead?_

When she wakes back up, Hiei's the first one she sees. He's hunched over against the wall with his sword close to him. Kurama is sleeping sitting up, leaning against her bed, but he's still close to her, and Botan is curled up on Me'ran's futon. I need more furniture, she thinks blankly. She expects a headache, but she doesn't have one. She guesses the knocked out ended ages ago, and she was sleeping of her own accord.

She's opened her eyes. That's good. She did that before she even noticed. She remembers that she could move the whole time, she just didn't want to because she was in so much pain. Well, except for her legs, those wouldn't move. Her back had been broken, and there is that gash up her side... She needs to change clothes.

As she starts to move, a simple motion of picking up her arm and putting her palm down next to her head and shoulder, she realizes that she can't move well at all--it's like every limb weighs a ton. She doesn't think there's any way she'll be able to pick herself up. Well. She CAN pick herself up, she's never been that weak before, but doing so would be a waste, and she doesn't really want to. She's so tired...

"You woke up," Hiei mumbles as his eyes open. She wonders why he's still here and not off doing his own thing.

At Hiei's voice, Kurama sits up and moves to the human girl in a single fluid motion, faster and more gracefully than Hiei could ever move, and he leans down to look at her face and he smiles. A sigh comes out of him, and he says, "You scared us. We were frightened you'd never wake up."

"Sorry to disappoint," she whispers. Again with the weakness, already she's sick of this shit. She reminds herself that, yeah, she can do it, but it's just way too much work to do right now, she doesn't want to. So she puts her head down, facing away from Kurama's concerned face.

"Sorry, man, but go away," she breathes, curling up a little tighter and stretching bits at a time. Now she has a headache.

Kurama sits back on his heels, and she knows he's got that smile on. He's happy she's back, even if she did hurt his feelings.

"How the hell did you survive that?" Hiei asks, looking over her. She rolls onto her back floppily and puts her arm over her head.

"I'm indestructible, baby," she hisses weakly with a smile, putting her fist to her chest. Then a question occurs to her. "Do I get new scars?" she asks, mostly to herself. She tries to sit up to look, but pain shoots through again, starting at her back and her side and goes straight up. It surprises her and the pain overwhelms her mind for a second, and she hears an utterance of pain escape her and she falls back onto her back, closing her eyes and groaning.

"Me'ran, you shouldn't try to move, yet," Kurama warns. Naw, ya think?! God Damn it that hurt.

"It just hurts," she sighs, rolling a little, trying to move so it doesn't hurt anymore, and then she tries to sit back up. She gives a strained cry, and decides to just stay down.

"Pain is a sign something's wrong," Kurama says. "Not a weakness."

"It's not a weakness," she agrees. "It's a pain in the ass and an inconvenience. I'm beyond the point of dying, I'm alright."

Hiei grunts and Kurama gives a soft laugh, though both of them still look concerned.

Botan opens her eyes and sits up and looks around stupidly before her eyes land on the human girl on the floor. "Me'ran!" she cries, and she starts to dive on the other female, but both Hiei and Kurama seize her and pull her back.

"You can't!" Kurama exclaims pleadingly. "You'll hurt her!"

She calms down immediately, then leans down over Me'ran and looks at her face. Me'ran stares back for a while during the time the pink eyes are so gleefully boring into the blue ones, until she gets annoyed. So she opens her mouth and bites at the pale nose that is dangerously close to touching Me'ran's face. Botan leans back and smiles brightly. "Yep, alive and well!" she declares. "Excellent news, I'm going to go report to Koenma right away!"

As the blue-haired woman leaves, Me'ran turns her head to allow the ear under her some air, and to get the back of her earring out of her skull.

"Do you need anything?" Kurama asks. "Water?"

"Nmn," she responds slowly. She considers saying "a few shots of vodka and a hookah pipe with the biggest amount of pot you can get in it".

"No," Hiei translates, but Me'ran can see the smile on his face.

"I spend enough time with you to understand the language of angry grunting," Kurama says curtly. "I'm going to go make tea."

She thinks for a second about what a funny word "grunt" is when he says it, and she giggles a little. The giggling is cut short with a hiss of pain. God fucking dammit, that hurts.

"Profane as ever," Hiei says, smirking. "I'm impressed."

By what?

"Your survival. Most humans wouldn't have made it, Indestructible or not."

What'd he do, anyway?

"He broke your back. And sliced up your liver. And you've got a few broken ribs, but they don't know that. One of them was broken by me this morning."

I knew those. I was making sure he didn't do anything else. Do you forgive me for whatever you were mad about this morning?

"You're stronger than you look," he says, ignoring the question, or dodging it altogether. She lets him slide and takes a shot to piss him off as retaliation.

And you're nicer than you immediately come across.

He looks at her and narrows his pretty red eyes at her. She sort of laughs.

Nice glare, she tells him. I can literally _feel_ the want to run me through.

"What's she done, Hiei?" Kurama asks as he comes back in. He has a cup of tea in his hand.

"She's being an insufferable smartass," Hiei answers.

"I'm not surprised. A brush with death will bring out that particular trait, especially out of someone-"

"That's a smartass already and responds to fear with manic giggles." She hears the tones in Hiei's voice change when he says, "Who is going to stay with her until she can move?"

Hiei, don't leave me here with him! I'll kick your ass! Me'ran thinks desperately. She feels his eyes on her for a split second.

Why the hell shouldn't I? he demands. She wishes she could move, just for this instant. She'd get up, snatch a knot out of his head then break a rib. Or his chin, considering he's a midget, and it's a better shot at the chin.

You owe me, Me'ran answers almost violently. Don't you dare jump out that fucking window.

"I have school. I've missed enough, lately; I can't afford to miss much more this month. I suppose we could take it in shifts."

I'm not an "it".

"She said not to call her an 'it'. I'll do it," Hiei says. His voice sounds like he's given up, or he's annoyed. "I owe her, anyway."

"You owe her?" Kurama asks, standing up. She catches the displeased tones in his voice, and the confused ones.

"She's saved my life on more than one occasion," he mumbles, lowering his head and looking rather bashful, suddenly. She's confused, not immediately remembering the axe head or the lizard-monster.

Kurama looks surprised. She wishes she could see better, too, because it's a great face. She's not sure if it's the humility out of Hiei, or the fact that she's actually saved his ass.

Why so surprised, Kurama? Me'ran asks mentally at the same time Hiei asks, "What's the face for. Didn't it occur to you that maybe I take her along with me because I need her help?"

"I didn't think you'd managed to get hurt so badly, Hiei. It's rather surprising to think about you allowing her to help you, much less allow yourself to be indebted to her."

"Go to school, idiot fox."

Hiei slumps annoyedly against the wall and crosses his arms. She starts to move, but an intense pain shoots through her again.

Jeez, can't Botan heal shit?

"She's a shinigami, not a doctor," Hiei barks. "She could only just close the hole in your side, and that was with Kurama's plant's help."

Kurama laughs quietly. "I keep forgetting she can communicate with you through thought," he says. Then he looks at Hiei and narrows his eyes a little. "Hiei, you can't leave her here alone. She's far too vulnerable, and if she tries to strain herself and makes it worse, she could die."

"I'm not stupid. I wouldn't risk someone that useful."

"I mean it, Hiei, no matter how boring things get."

"I'm not leaving."

"Tell me this. I will hold you to your word."

Hiei rolls his eyes and gives a derisive sound. "I will not leave."

Kurama looks satisfied, then pats her hair gently, and he gets up. "I have to go. I'll drop by after school."

Then the door closes, and he's gone, and it's silent.

"Persistent, isn't he?" Hiei finally asks. "Even I'm not that cruel."

You try to act like you are, Me'ran points out emptily. Plus, the way he was drilling you made it seem like you'd leave as soon as the door was shut right.

"You think I would?" he asks/demands. He looks slightly hurt, but more pissed. She figures the pissed is the cover up for the hurt.

If it were someone you owed less than your life twice over to, you never would have offered, or even stayed, she answers sharply. Even in her head, it sounds cold.

"Hn," he responds, looking hurt again, but he hides it and sits down against the wall and puts himself behind his knees. "This is going to be a boring day."

That's why he made you swear to not abandon me.

"No, he made me swear to not leave you because he's afraid that you're going to die. What he doesn't realize is that if you were going to die, you would have, by now, and there is even less chance of you dying, now."

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, Me'ran agrees. I suppose my death didn't kill me, and neither did an Indestructible, the only thing that can get me now is time.

"Hn," he says.

It's quiet for a while longer, and he seems to be asleep, and Me'ran tries to sleep to recuperate, but it doesn't work. Eventually, Hiei's eyes scrunch shut, like he's fighting with something, or hurt, and then they dart open, and he looks right at her. "You have nightmares behind your eyes," he tells her, rising to his feet.

Do I? What are they? she asks curiously.

"I'm not sure. They tried to eat me," he answers. "There were lots of sharp-toothed mouths. What's wrong with you?"

She sort of laughs, then thinks, Maybe you shouldn't have been looking there?

"Guarding memories?" he teases with a smirk.

Nothing to guard, that's just rude as hell. What're you doing in my head, anyway? You're going to catch something in there. You have no idea where that's been. Keep your eye out of there.

"It's interesting," he snips indifferently. He goes to her closet and drags out a box and starts to dig through it. She tries to watch him going through her box.

Get out of there! she finally cries angrily as he starts looking through old drawings.

"What're you hiding?" he asks, dropping the papers to the side, giving her a smirk. She wills herself to get up and throw something at him, but she only gets her knees folded under her when she feels a strange splitting sensation in her side, like something is torn, and she falls back down with a cry of distress. He stops digging through her stuff and lays her back onto her back and moves the keigoki up so he can see it. She feels it bleeding.

Botan healed my back, but her skill was limited on the life-threatening wound itself, Me'ran explains. I guess, she adds.

"From the looks of it. What can we do about it?"

We? How unusually caring of you. Mmkay, well. Do me a favor. I think the usual kits are still belted to my ankles, could you get them?

He pulls both of them off and out and puts them on the floor and opens them. She sees him studying them in an attempt to figure them out, but it doesn't do any good.

"What do I do?"

Alright, you see the thick cloth, soft, so loosely knit you can see through it?

"Yes."

Take that, and unroll it, then fold it up into lengths enough to cover the whole wound.

He takes a minute, but he handles it well. She guesses it's because of the practice with his right hand.

"Now what?"

That white tape stuff--take bits of it and put the cloth over the hole and tape it into place. I've never been hurt this badly, and I can't see it...

"You worked with wounds of war for half a month, and you still have no idea what to do with your own wound?"

Well, this is different. I can't give myself stitches, and I'm not trusting a needle in your hands anymore than I have to, and I can't heal myself, either. I could if I could see it, but I can't, it's right in the wrong spot.

He's quiet, and he goes back to looking through her stuff.

What the hell are you looking for in there?

"I wanted to know what someone like you finds valuable."

Someone like me?

He continues digging in silence, pulling out the stacks of paper and the toys and artsy stuff, before he finally shoves it all back and goes to her and pulls her up by the wrist, then puts his leg behind her to brace her and he puts Kurama's tea in her hands.

What's someone like me? she insists

"A human like you. Benign to a fault. Refuses to hurt one hurting her, will only fight for someone else, and then saves their life."

But that's not what you meant. Why would I have anything special in there because of that?

"If you must know, I wanted to see what the hell you had in there at all. You don't care about any of it."

Of course not, it's just junk.

"Can't you talk? I'm tired of having eight million thoughts surrounding me and having to pick out the loud one."

Fuck that, Hiei, you're just gonna have to deal.

He scowls, then lets her fall back on the floor. She's head bounces, and he winces, like it hurt him.

What the hell're you scowling for?

"I can feel the stuff in your head, too."

Then stay out of there, I'll figure out how to talk.

He laughs quietly, then looks at Me'ran's bed.

"Why didn't you want to sleep in your bed?"

I didn't want blood in it.

He chuckles again, then gets up to go somewhere else. "Go to sleep," he commands from the living room.

So she rolls a little onto her not-wounded side, and she makes her legs move until her quilt is wrapped around her feet, and she curls up as well as she can without stretching the hold in her side, and she closes her eyes, and sleeps.

br 

Hiei's true to his word to Kurama. After the last conversation, he really just wants to leave, even though he's not sure why. He paces her apartment, and he looks through her stupid little boxes of stuff, and he naps on and off through the day, and he really just wishes she'd go ahead and die.

Why'd Kurama have to be so foolish and fall for her, anyway? If he hadn't, he wouldn't care, and he could even kill her himself without wincing. Of course, killing her isn't what's on his mind at the moment. What's on his mind is something a little worse, though he can't say he doesn't enjoy entertaining the ideas in the back of his mind. He appreciates the rolling, naked figures, for that matter, though he's twisted things about and made himself at least the same height as her. Not often, but every once in a while (though usually only around someone taller than him who happens to need a reason to make fun of him), his height is a disadvantage, and that would be one of those situations.

He does what he usually does when she's asleep and sits against the wall and admires the sweet, restful look about her face, watching her dream. Her mouth twitches, her hands curl, her foot shifts. The fears that she doesn't notice in her waking hours haunt her in her sleep, and he watches as all the moments she's fought off her own terrors come back to attack. He considers looking in, but the last time he did that, she drowned in her dream, and he didn't like the way he could feel the cold water flood "his" lungs. He "woke up" at the same time as her and choked for a minute before he realized that there was no water.

He thinks for a minute about how angelic she looks when she's sleeping, and how appropriate it is that she's been playing guardian angel over him and countless others for... How long has it been? Hardly even a couple of months... He watched her heal hundreds, literally, of demons in the last two weeks alone, selflessly, to the brink of unconsciousness.

Hiei gets up and goes to the kitchen to figure out how to cook well enough to feed himself. The... What's it called. The ice box or fridge or whatever the hell those damn people call it... It's used to keep food fresh, but everything in here has died, or has developed new life. It's been three weeks since she was here, though, and she didn't intend to keep anything to last.

He hops onto the counter to explore the cabinets, but he doesn't see anything useful. So he drops off the counters, then goes back to her room and sits on her bed.

It's surprisingly comfortable, so he lets himself lie down and he lets his feet hang off so he doesn't get anything in the bed, and he pulls one bit of the quilt over him, and he closes his eyes and falls asleep faster than he means to.


	37. Up Again

_Up Again_

When Me'ran wakes up, she sees Hiei sleeping on her bed with his legs dangling off. She laughs a little, and sits up without thinking about it. She's achy, but she's still whole. Then she remembers that she couldn't get up, not long ago.

"Whoa," she mumbles. Then she sits at the foot of her bed and watches Hiei sleep. Mainly as revenge.

He seems to know she's watching him, because he gets a little squirmy. He looks like he's having a rough dream. His mouth is poked out, and his eyes are squinty a little. She waits for him to wake up.

It doesn't take long. He opens his eyes and darts upright and stands up. She giggles and stands up herself, putting her feet under her and lifting herself slowly.

"You're moving," he says. "It only took you a whole day of sleeping."

"I took care of you for a night and day straight, and you got the blessing of sleeping through all of taking care of me," she answers. "I don't even want to hear it."

"I didn't ask you to take care of me."

"You did. You appointed me the duty of taking care of you and anyone you hurt. Plus, it would have sucked if I had been stuck in the Makai with nothing but the corpse of my former comrade and half-friend."

Hiei makes a derisive sound. "I'm not your friend."

"Even so, I'm your friend. Thus calling you a half-friend," Me'ran chides as she turns to the closet and digs to find some clothes. She finds all she needs and carries them with her to the bathroom. She puts her clothes on a shelf over her doorway. Hiei moves about the apartment, and she hangs out the door.

"You hungry?"

"No."

"Don't lie. You're hungry."

"Doesn't matter, there's nothing in your kitchen that can be eaten."

"Oh, yeah, three weeks... Yeah, I guess that's long enough to kill what little I had left. That's alright, we can go get food, and then I can go shopping. I guess it's the least I could do for your help."

"Nm," he answers.

"'kaaay," Me'ran sings brightly. "Bathe first, then feed us."

* * *

Hiei sat in the hallway of the apartment, between her bedroom door and the bathroom door, and he was only half listening, because the first thing she did when she got in there was start singing, at first quietly, and then more and more loudly. Right now, she's singing in English.

Somewhere between the words "Happy" and another that he did not know, she stopped singing and gave a cry so loud that he was convinced she was dying.

"AAAAAAGGH!"

He started for the door, but no sooner than he had touched the wood, she called out, "Sorry, Hiei, got soap in the wound, hurt like a bitch, but I'm okay."

Her singing continues, but she interrupts herself frequently with cries of pain—so many that Hiei's beginning to feel that he should just leave to avoid listening to any more screaming, but then, after a while, and a final, bitten off shriek, they stop.

He strains to think in a straight line. She likes him, he knows that much. There were traces of that strewn about her mind. He likes her, too. But he has no idea what to do, now. He never entertained a relationship, and the only examples he has are Kuwabara's and Yukina's, which is mostly one-sided (it'd better be.), or Yuusuke's and Keiko's, which is dysfunctional at best.

Why the hell am I thinking this hard on it? It's stupid, there's no point in it, and there's no reason either of them would actually bother indulging themselves on this shit. Not only does he not know how to go about it, but neither does she. In fact, she had all kinds of problems dealing with boys whose feelings she didn't return, and with trying to figure out if she had feelings for anyone at all.

He sighs, leaning against the wall and waiting. She's still singing. Doesn't sound half bad, and she's singing in Japanese now.

He has no business here. He has no business with her. The fox will never forgive him, anyway. She's off limits, she is out of bounds, he is not allowed.

This, naturally, makes it even more tempting. Not only does she tolerate everything about him and insists on refusing to hate him back, but she's Forbidden. He should honor Kurama's wishes, as his comrade, he knows, but she doesn't return Kurama's feelings, and, better yet, she feels for Hiei.

Why is he waiting this long for breakfast? He could go out and steal something just as easily as he could sit here and wait. He doesn't need to be here, he should be somewhere far away from her. Knowing Kurama, he'll be here shortly after school ends anyway, and...

His impatience finally takes hold, and he starts for the balcony. But he hesitates for a second. Maybe she's done. Ten seconds more. If she doesn't come out, he's gone. He goes to stand at the door. Ten. Nine. Eight.

And then he nearly falls backwards, surprised when he's met with her neck. He's caught off guard for a second, but his eyes shoot up to her face. She suddenly seems a lot bigger, and, after he steps back and allows himself to see more of her at once, beautiful. Her skin is glowing, and her eyes are bright, and her wet hair is untamed and hanging beautifully around her face, and he has to fight with himself to not do or say something rude or particularly stupid. He can almost ignore the strange happiness that bubbles in his chest and almost hurts.

"Well, move," she says, pushing his shoulder, letting him step back. She smiles, too, and he remembers, oh, that's why I want to figure this out.

But as she moves for her door, he can tell she's distracted, and she stands next to the door, opening it, and she waves her unused hand to gesture before letting it fall to her side.

He starts out the door, and he reaches out a little and touches at the hand resting at her side, and reach into her head to see what happens.

She noticed, and she didn't dismiss it. She knows how little he does on accident, and she waits until he gets through the door to follow him. But being in her head shows him the turmoil that a brush of the hand started, and he steps back out quickly.

Damn.


	38. Why Does This Have to Be So Complicated?

_Why Does This Have To Be So Complicated?_

Why does this have to be so complicated? Me'ran asks herself.

Because he's a heartless bastard and because I'm a socially retarded psychopath with issues about hurting people and saving lives, Me'ran answers.

He's not an entirely heartless bastard. He did just make a move on me, didn't he?

Yeah, what was with that?

Doesn't matter, what the hell do we do now? I can't do anything with him; I can't do anything at all, what the hell do girls do when they like a boy, anyway, especially when they both know already? I mean, I've seen people cuddle, but neither of us likes to cuddle. Hell, neither of us can stand being close to someone else.

"Do you mind?" Hiei barks. He's had to hop up to catch up with her abnormally quick pace, because even his disproportionally long legs can't keep up with her without doing so. She's normally a lot slower when walking, and she usually takes more time and watches her surroundings, but she's stressed. She also takes a second and realizes that she's nearly running, too. She stops moving long enough for him to catch up and she starts walking again, making sure, this time, to slow her pace.

"Sorry," she mutters when she remembers to.

Is it that bad? Why the hell am I this worked up about it?

Because you like him. And he likes you. And now you want something and you don't know how to get it, even though it's sitting right there.

To hell with you, where the hell'd you come from anyway?

Shut up, you've got a problem.

Me'ran has to stop to let Hiei catch up again, and then she stops walking so quickly. For now, anyway.

So, what do I do? Just grab him and kiss him? Wait until one of us is about to die (I'd have to wait for him to get hurt again) and confess?

Discreet affection would only cause confusion, and direct affection would cause hostility, or at least discomfort, to which both of them react violently.

Jeez, the only time either of us can stand to be affectionate is when one of us has their life in peril.

Great, maybe if she just keeps him injured, he'll be nice, and she'll be able to be affectionate.

* * *

Me'ran slides into a diner she's noticed a few times. It's, for the large part, full, so no one notices either of them, and they go seat themselves at a corner booth so that Hiei can put his back to the wall.

Hiei points at whatever it is he wants, and Me'ran tells the server that shows up what she want. Hiei's slumping against the back of his seat, looking three times shorter than normal. She slumps against the chair. Neither of them talks, which is fine by her.

Her brain is working on overload. She's trying to come up with a way for the two of them to work. Neither of them can stand skin contact. What skin contact they make is during fights or healing.

This is the worst position she's ever been in. Well, second to watching someone die while she can't do anything. But it's got the same helplessness and hopelessness about it.

This blows, Me'ran sighs mentally, slumping to the table next to her food. Finally, I find a guy that's interested in me, too, and neither of us can figure out how to work it out between us.

She looks over at Hiei and sees that his face is betraying frustration. It's discreet. His jaw is tight, and his eyes are narrowed, and his arms are crossed, and his knees are up. She wonders why he's this grumpy, too, but then she realizes he's trying to think the same things she is.

Relationships are not Me'ran's forte. Nor his. Neither of them has ever had a relationship. Or, well, she hasn't. He might have, but she can't imagine how that might have gone. She doubts seriously either of them has ever loved on that level before. She certainly hasn't, and Hiei probably hasn't, either.

Maybe if he got hurt? She could probably pull some strings in Demon World, at this point. Or she could get herself hurt. Or even make pretend that the slice up her side is still hurt. It'd be a good excuse to be near him. She thinks it would be better for her to be the one hurt, because there's less risk. Hell, it'd be best if she could just come up with a way to be together without harm, but neither of them can stand it.

Maybe he's figured out something.

"What do we do now?" Me'ran asks him. "I mean. I know, and you know, and we both know the other one knows."

"What?"

"Don't play dumb. I sort of confessed my crush, and I'm not stupid enough to not think you harbor one. I have my doubts, but you stopped trying to kill me. And if you didn't, you and Kurama wouldn't have had those fights, and Kurama wouldn't be so damn pissy."

"I thought I was the mind-reader," he finally spits. He leans against his knees and keeps his mouth and nose hidden.

"So what do we do?"

He's quiet for a minute. "I don't care what we do now."

"Shut up," Me'ran sighs exasperatedly, rolling her head back to stare at the ceiling, "This shouldn't be this hard. We're so frikkin' alike, even if we are completely different."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"We both prefer our alone time, but neither of us likes being alone. We're distant and hard to impress. We're carnivorous. We love high places. We hate that people think we're monsters, but we both get that weird joy when we make people think it. We are both satisfied by bleeding bodies, though you like making them that way, and I like fixing it."

He's silent. She is guessing that he's not sure how to respond.

"If I touch you, your initial reaction is to pull away, even if you like it or need it," she continues, feeling better when she talked. "When I'm touched, I start to swing."

"So?"

"So how the hell am I supposed to kiss you? How do I touch someone who is as afraid of closeness as I am? How do we do this?"

"I don't care."

"Shut up or I'll hit you with something."

The food hits the table, and the waitress gives Me'ran a friendly look, and she smiles falsely at her until she leaves.

"Kurama is never going to forgive me," Hiei mutters.

"Why not? You didn't do it," Me'ran states evenly, all calm returning. She was getting just a tad too emotional to discuss this. She looks at the food and is very vaguely aware of the fact that she no longer wants to eat. She picks up a piece of something she doesn't remember ordering, and she stares at it. Jeez, Japanese food is weird.

"I told him I didn't want you."

"He knew you lied when you said it. He had fair chance. And even if I didn't like you, I wouldn't like him because he's way too much like my mother. Well. My grandmother, really, my mother knew how to yell, and she never gave that much of a shit. He'll have to forgive you, anyway. He's old enough. How old is he, anyway? He was a demon, but he's really, really old."

Hiei looks at Me'ran curiously. Sort of. It's more like a quirked eyebrow and a little less of a scowl. "How do you know that?"

"I'm smart. His demon name is Kurama, but other than that, I don't know what his deal is. What's his story?"

"He's a legend in the Makai. A notorious thief, and according to some legends, a horrific philanderer, though I imagined that sprang from his numerous fangirls coming up with stories of him seducing them. He's merciless, cutthroat, and when he sets his mark, he doesn't let himself fail. I was told stories of him to frighten me when I was a child. I've yet to fight him myself, and I won't say I'm not looking forward to the opportunity to face him in combat. Though there is a slight difference between him before this life and now. He lets his emotions power him."

This is making talking easier. So she keeps talking. She thinks for a second. "That's probably worst, the emotion thing."

"Why is that worst?"

"Because emotionless people can sit back and say it doesn't matter. I'll sooner die than let someone I care about die. When you get insulted, you will sooner die than suffer the offense. Yuusuke will give his life as long as he takes down whomever it is challenging him. People powered by their feelings will sooner die than give up," Me'ran babbles airily. "But the difference between him and us is that he has his emotions in a nice little drawer, folded up nice and neat. He doesn't really feel them, he pulls them out and plays with them until he doesn't want to, and he puts them back. He will leave his anger at you in its place until he knows he's doing the 'right' thing in attacking you. But you still haven't answered my question. How old is he?"

"Over a thousand years old," Hiei states.

"Ah. That's... He was using that to scare you. When I was asleep, and I'd wake up with both of you there, he was angry at you, and he was using it to try to scare you. The murderous intent, I could as good as taste it, but he was using something else."

"He can control his aura. He was reminding me of his legend. My memories did the rest of the work."

"That was a very demonic aura," Me'ran agrees, picking at her food. Hiei's either been eating discreetly, or he's inhaled it through some invisible orifice, but his food's going away little by little.

"Does that eye eat for you, too?" she asks, pointing at his nearly-empty plate.

"No. Just because you don't pay attention to it doesn't mean it isn't there and it doesn't happen. Damn human."

"Shut up." Me'ran smiles, now. "I don't think Kurama's going to attack you. He may be angry, probably at both of us, but he can't think you're to blame for my crush. Hell, you tried to kill me. Three times."

"I've only tried to kill you... Damn. Four times."

"Four? When was the fourth? There was, this one," she mumbles, petting the scar on the side of her neck. "Then the one in the tunnels. Then the one where you had your sword on my neck, though that was more a threat than an attempt..."

"On the roof of the building," he answers. "I tried to stab you. Second night in the city."

"Oh, yeah." She nods slowly, for a second, thinking, then grins as a though occurs to her. "Alright, I think I've figured out how to make this work," she tells him, looking over the table at him, leaning forward and unable to fight the grin. He gives her a look, but she remains undaunted. "How about, after we eat, and I get a chance to go shopping and clean out my fridge, we fight. And then work it from there."

He smiles. Sort of. "This is your idea?"

"Yes. We hurt each other, I heal you, you attempt to fix whatever's wrong with me, and we're set."

"Hm," he agrees.


	39. Figuring it Out

_Figuring It Out_

**Lime.**

Me'ran goes shopping; Hiei takes off, having arranged to meet each other in a field near a park where neither of them will be bothered.

So now she's cleaned out her fridge, she's put everything up in her cabinets, her room is clean, she's met with Kurama and assured him that she's okay, and now she's laying on her back in the grass, admiring the clouds and the orangish pink color of the sky.

"I never thought you would propose a fight," Hiei's voice says. A shadow falls over her calves.

"Best idea I've ever had," Me'ran agrees, sitting up and brushing off her ass and back. He's standing a little ways away. "Take the first shot," she commands after a few moments of just standing there silently. "I can't."

"You'll lose if I do," he answers evenly.

"Then scare me into swinging," Me'ran answers with a shrug. "It's not like the winner of the fight decides anything."

He disappears, and a hand puts itself on her lower ribs. Her elbow flies by instinct and hits him in the side of the head. He staggers, but as she turns around, she's greeted by his shoulder in her stomach, and she's knocked sliding. He chases her down, but she grabs his collar and throws him over her own head and runs at him.

He is caught off guard by her fist to his chin, and he staggers back, stunned by the blow. She throws another punch at his midsection, but Hiei catches her fist and sends a knee into her side. She low blocks it and head butts his nose. It starts bleeding profusely. He stumbles back, probably due to the impact, and he puts his hand to his face. Something she's noticed about Hiei, especially while he's fighting is that he is actually quite open to attack, if one can get through his speed. And Me'ran can. The problem with that is that he's remarkably tough. And he can kick her ass, once he gets grounds on himself enough to.

Apparently, the broken nose pisses him off. He pulls out his sword. He starts to swing at her, but she catches it between her fingers, and she can push it back.

"Trying to kill me?" she asks as he swings at her again. She backbends to dodge it and starts to kick over, but he brings a foot down into her midsection, putting her on her back.

"Since I can't kill you, I might as well see what damage I can do," he says with a sadistic grin as he tries to bring his sword down to stab her. She grins back and does a back tumble onto her hands and kicks him in the head, then lets herself fall again. He leans down and falls when she knocks his ankle and he loses balance. She swings herself to her feet. He rolls away from her to keep her from stepping on him, and he sways to his feet, then launches himself at her and punches at her jaw. Me'ran catches his arm and puts her arm against it, snapping it at the elbow. He screams and backs away for a second, then he punches her hard with his other arm and throws her backwards. A little blood seeps out of her forehead where he just got her, and she smiles a little. He continues going after her, though, taking several swings at her with the sword and slicing at her until he finally notices how clumsy she is and how she's only barely dodging, and he changes target. The blade bites into her arm and passes through it easily, removing the limb from the upper-middle of her forearm.

All motion suddenly stops. Me'ran freezes where she stands, and her eyes shoot wide and her mouth falls open and her whole stance changes. She's not sure why the hell she's not panicking, yet, but she's very, very close to it.

Hiei drops his sword as she falls to her knees. Her other hand does exactly what it needs to do and she wraps her hand, thumb to middle finger, around the base of the wound to cut off blood flow. "Me'ran!" Hiei almost yelps, running to her and putting his palm to the stub where her arm once was to slow the bleeding. It was amazing that she hadn't already passed out—the blood was pouring out so thickly that she was already getting lightheaded. She had almost completely cut off circulation, but that was still not good, because she had no way to avoid the heart attack this could induce.

"It's okay, just hand me my hand," Me'ran giggles nervously. He looks at her face, probably to check on shock, then moves back and picks up her severed limb. The fingers are twitching madly. For some reason, he takes this much better than a slice through normal flesh, and he just tosses her the extremity. She takes it in her right hand, thankful that he got her left one, and she tries to line up the bones and everything. It's so weird to look at her detached limb like this. Wow.

Hiei stares with wide red eyes as she works to heal it. The veins, first, to make the blood stop, she decided, seeking out the vessels and the arteries and veins, bonding them together carefully. The pouring blood did not stop, but at least now it was all superficial. Now, bones, first, then the muscles, then the sinews and nervous tissues and tendons and all the flesh, then the skin...

It takes her a while, but when she gets it close enough to perfectly attached, she's satisfied and she starts testing it out. Fingers wiggle okay, wrist, twists properly... Okay! Good! Blood loss is kind of jarring, but the healer is still okay. The blood has soaked her jeans and her shirt and the ground she was on, so she stands, now, and smiles at Hiei, who is still staring at her with awe.

"Cool. You ready to go back to my apartment so I can heal you? Before someone stumbles upon us? Or thinks we just dumped a body?

"Hn."

* * *

Me'ran gets back to her apartment. The dusky light fills her room with an orangey glow, and Hiei's sitting on her floor looking mildly hurt and displeased. Me'ran stands him up and takes his cloak off. She half wishes she'd broken his leg, but he doesn't get his feet up enough, and they're too low to attack.

He stands for a second, until she pushes his arm roughly back into place. He barks in pain and nearly hits her, but she doesn't even twitch.

"Couldn't you have-"

"No."

Me'ran puts her hand on his elbow and closes her eyes and tries to figure out where the bones are broken before she heals them.

* * *

Me'ran leads Hiei back to her apartment, and she takes his cloak off for him. Then she ruins the moment (What's wrong with you, you idiot, you've gone soft.) when she pushes his elbow the right way, which forces out a cry of pain he only just cuts short. But she doesn't look up at him, even when his other arm's reflexes begin to move to strike. She just busies herself with healing Hiei's snapped elbow. He admires her sincere, deeply concentrated face. It's beautiful and strange to see the usually inexpressive, almost sad, face straighten out and focus the way it did when she was working. He'd almost get hurt on purpose if it meant she'd keep her hands on him with that look on her face. He catches his mouth moving to smile, and he fights it back down.

While he's watching her, he realizes she's still bleeding at the forehead. A little gash over her right eyebrow that'll leave a scar identical to the one over her left eyebrow. He moves one hand up and pushes the pad of his thumb to it gently, and she twitches violently away from him and catches his wrist tightly. Hiei looks up at the same time she lowers her eyes to his face, and their eyes meet; suddenly, Hiei is much more aware of the pain he just inadvertently caused the human brat. Her pretty blue eyes are flooded with tears, and he's immediately sorry. It shouldn't have hurt that much. Maybe it was the salt from the sweat he's taken off his neck or something; he doesn't think his thumb should have hurt something that small that much.

But when he looks more carefully at her face, he has to turn his head. She just looks so hurt. She knows he did it on purpose. He tries to not feel guilty (A whole new experience for him, guilt never was something he suffered until he met this little witch). He was just checking to see how hurt she was, why the hell would he feel bad for that?

She stands up and puts her fingers to the hole next to his eyebrow, and she uses her other hand to play with his hair. He's caught off guard, and he starts to dodge backwards, but the feeling of her nails digging into his scalp stops him, intoxicating him to the brink of falling down. He can't move anymore, try as he might. It's almost narcotic, the effect that the claws have, and part of him wishes it would go on forever. Dammit, she cheated.

Hiei gains enough control of his suddenly extraordinarily heavy arms to swat at her hand, but she catches his wrist in her hand and leans close to his face and her eyes are staring far into his, suddenly, freezing him. Something about her whole face is entrancing in the most frightening way; her eyes are wide, her mouth is spread into what looks like it's meant to be a smile, and her hair is rumpled, sticking out in odd ways and stringing into her eyes. Her eyes, though... They're stormy and confused, and something in them is pleased, and they smile at him in the way her mouth is failing to.

She puts her nose to his and the warmth of being healed spreads into his nose, and Hiei almost can't not laugh--she's healing him with her nose, of all things--and then her lips hit his, and she kisses him. It's Hiei's first kiss. He'd never understood why kisses were so special, but it all comes rushing to him at once. Her skin and lips are cold, compared to his, but he doesn't mind that so much--she warms as she stays close to him, and what she's doing is more than making up for the chill she sends down his whole body. (A fire demon? Chills? The hell is this kind of power?) She tastes, simply put, like... life. Flesh, meat, breath, air, blood, all of it, but that's not all there is to it, there's more than he could even begin to describe.

She's not very good, or at least unpracticed, but something about it seems... Unusual. It's for him. Affection toward him, real love, not just camaraderie, is a new thing, and to be kissed by someone at all, much less one that actually... loves... him. She's begun to suck on his upper lip inexpertly; it's almost bliss. She doesn't kiss him for long, but while she does, he takes in every sensation it offers--the slight pull of the soft flesh, the contact that she makes, what little there is, when her hand puts itself into his hair and pulls him closer. Her lips stick to his when she finally rocks onto her heels. Hiei regrets not having enough control over it to return the favor, suddenly, just as he realized it was over.

He can't move too well, he notices. It's like the head scratch, only worse, because the narcotic effect is gone, and he's just absolutely stunned. After a second, he looks up at her, and she looks down at him again, and smiles, sort of, and goes back to healing his forehead. Her other hand goes down to his lower right side, and she starts healing something that he wasn't even aware of there.

"Sorry, I wanted to try it out," she says. "Sorry if I'm not a good kisser, but I've never done it before."

She smiles again, and Hiei can see she feels stupid for having tried it. Her own first kiss wasn't returned. She looks almost as if she's about to weep, but he can't understand why. Tears build up in her dark blue eyes, and he sees her face turning slightly red as she fights her emotions. Hiei has to resort to lifting the kekkai on his Jagan to peer into her mind. She's afraid he didn't like it, and he won't let her near him again. He liked it, beyond being unable to concentrate through it, and if she never did it again, it would kill him, pure and simple. So... so...

Hiei stands on his tiptoes and wraps his hand around the back of her neck and pulls her close enough to kiss. His lips meet hers clumsily, and he awkwardly attempts to kiss her the way she just kissed him. His mouth is a little open, and her bottom lip slips between his two, and he feels the scar on her bottom lip and he can't stifle the smile it inspires. He's almost envious of the way she could just kiss him the way she did, explain every feeling, express every thought of him in just one simple motion, but he's so unsure of himself that he almost stops. He also wishes he were taller, because then she wouldn't be leaning down and this would be easier, dammit.

From the looks of it, he gets it through to her. She seems surprised at first, but then she forgets all surprise and starts kissing him back, and he feels his back hit the wall. He grunts in pain, because whatever she didn't finish healing in his side hurts, now. She grunts, too, probably because of unknown damage on her behalf. Her flushed lips are soft, but not too much so, and he can feel the two scars that he's seen, but never in the detail he can feel. He plays with one of them with his tongue, enjoying the feel of the little bump in the flesh, and she bites his lip in return. Her teeth nearly break the skin, but something about it is still terrific, the pain blending nicely with the sensation. She kisses him again, putting his head to the wall. It's almost forceful, but the passion is, again, new to him, and he can forgive the pain as long as she continues giving this feeling to him. Her heartbeat is strong against his chest, and he swears he can feel the blood rushing through her, through her hands and her lips, and he feels her becoming almost as warm as he is. Her cold fingers run through his hair and the other hand runs itself down his spine, sending chills down his whole body.

The kiss lasts nearly two minutes, until she steps back and smiles. She's beautiful, for this instant. The dusk light has faded almost entirely, but what is still there is highlighting everything perfectly. Her whole face has lit up, and she's smiling a strange misshapen grin. Her hair is disheveled from the fight and the ferocity of the kiss, her whole body is being held differently, like something about her has changed--she almost looks wild--and it's a terrific look for her.

"Sorry," she says quietly, though the feral grin still haunts her face. "You know, you're a lot better at kissing than I thought you'd be."

"You're a lot worse than you look like you'd be," Hiei answers. "Never struck me as the rough type, either." His lips turn up into a semi-smile.

"Bastard," she responds, lunging at him again. He scoots out of the way, but she grabs his belt and pulls him to her and wraps him in her arms to kiss him again. One of her arms is under his, but her other is over his shoulder, pinning his arm down with her elbow while her hand grips his hair almost painfully. He's never known her to be so ferocious, but he can't say he doesn't like it. It's almost demonic of her to be like this, which, in its way, makes her even more appealing, not only as a lover but as a mate. She kisses him, and he kisses her back. She nearly starts chewing on his mouth, which is messy, but has its own sensation that is strangely pleasurable, and she leans closer to him. Her breasts push to his chest, and he can feel the fullness of them through her clothes, and he can still feel her heartbeat, and he feels her breathing, and...

Something happens and Hiei's teeth cut into her lips when one of them bumps chin or someone closes their mouth too hard. Hiei's not real sure. The taste of her blood mixes in with her saliva, and he sucks on the wounded lip until she pulls away and lunges again. He keeps trying to take the dominance of the kiss, not wanting to be outdone by this human brat, but she fights him down and wins him over each time. He almost pulls away because of this, but before he even tries, she takes hold of his hair and pulls him even closer to her.

Hiei begins to think for a second, trying to think of why he's allowing this, but then, it would kill him to pretend he doesn't love her anymore. She won't tell anyone, either, and he hates seeing her wither the way she does when he's cold to her.

Besides, this is much nicer.

He can feel the floor under his back, suddenly, and he wonders where the hell that came from. She moves her arm out from under the small of his back and he's slightly aware of the fact that she just put him on the floor in his distraction. He starts to get up, but she pins him by the shoulder and continues kissing him. He feels her hands starting to explore him, never her whole hands, just her fingertips or claws.

The way her dull human claws run over the junction of his neck and shoulder sends shivers down his spine--or perhaps that's the way she's going down his side, the way her thumb is going over his navel, or the sudden bite she just gave his earlobe...

* * *

They kiss for ages. Me'ran first noticed when they started, he tastes unusually. Not like whatever he eats, like she's always thought people kiss like, but he tastes like breath, and life, and the Makai's air and, somehow, blood, and the taste is so strong that even when she pulls away, she tastes it. After a little while, she decides she wants to do a little more. Me'ran runs her hand down the center of his back, using her claws to just barely scrape the skin. He shudders involuntarily.

"Good?" she teases. He bites her chin.

She continues running her hands over him, going over his sides, down his belly, over his chest, down his back. Each time, she makes sure she's only just touching him. He gets twitchy, now and again, especially when she gets this one place over his hip. She notices how his skin is so hot, compared to hers, even though she's at her warmest, tonight, after a fight and still strong with what little reiki is coursing through her. At her touch, he gets chill bumps, and she can't help but smile.

Before too long, Me'ran has him lying on his back, breathing funny, and completely naked. She's kind of proud of herself. She's never done this before, and he's completely helpless. She keeps playing with him, though, using her claws in the right places, breathing on him, biting, kissing, petting, even licking along his ear and chin. She wants something for herself, but this is fun, and she doesn't normally get to see Hiei helpless, let alone naked and helpless at her mercy.

She keeps this up for a long time. He tries to choke out a few words, but they never get very far.

She runs her hand close to the soft spot over his groin, and his facial expression changes, eyes screwing shut and breath held and teeth biting on his lip, but as soon as she takes her hand away, he exhales slowly and relaxes. Me'ran laughs.

"Don't laugh at me," he sputters, fighting his eyes open.

"Why not?"

"Because... then I get to laugh at you."

"But I'm not doing anything to make you laugh."

He wriggles a little, then sits up and pounces on her, knocking her onto the floor and pinning her on her back. He suddenly looks very proud of himself, but she just laughs in his face.

"Heh, I'm still not--Aagh!"

It's not that it hurt, but it surprised the hell out of her. She feels his hand dive into her jeans, and then there's a surge of pleasure that makes her legs twitch, and then his middle finger pushes into her warm and wet opening, and his thumb hits a very sensitive spot. She bucks a little and rolls a little, and her legs press and try to move her away from the intruding hand. He follows her, putting his other hand on her chest and pushing her down firmly onto the floor and pinning her with one of his knees planted in her chest.

"Agh, Hiei," she gasps, wriggling. She's fighting something that she wants, kind of a reflex, but he keeps good enough control to keep his hold on her. The hand on her chest twists itself into her shirt, pinning her more effectively. She tries to fight, but he's started to apply real strength to hold her down.

He laughs quietly, mocking her, and the pleasing feelings grows as his finger wriggles enthusiastically while his thumb is having a field day over her clit. She tries to stop twitching and wriggling, but every time she masters her tense muscles, he does something different, and she twitches even more violently than the time before.

He leans close to her and puts his face to her neck. The breath is nice, going down, and his lips touch it gently, and then he bites it. She takes the attack of opportunity and bites the hell out his ear. He, to get her back, sinks his teeth into her neck, biting down hard enough to draw blood.

The hand he tangled into her shirt pulls until the cloth rips off her shoulders where the weak seams were already beginning to go, and he pulls at the collar to finish the job, leaving her in her bra and, from what she can tell, half-removed pants. The motions he is beginning to make are near on violent. He pulls her bra off over her head, completely forgetting or not bothering with unsnapping it, and he even takes his hand out of her panties long enough to take them completely off her legs.

She tries to curl up after she realizes exactly how naked she is, but he leans down over her, pushing her shoulders to the floor and straddling her to keep her down. She reaches up to push him off, but he puts her hands to the floor, holding her wrists so tightly that she can't pull them away. He leans down over her, still holding her hands down, and he kisses her, then bites her chest. He lets go of her wrists, and one hand tangles itself in her hair and the other one takes hold of her waist, and his fingers dig in as his lips meet hers roughly. She groans and whimpers and moans, but he ignores the sounds entirely. His tongue enters her mouth and wraps around hers, and he licks at her teeth and he even pulls her tongue into his mouth and sucks on it. She keeps hearing herself moan unconsciously.

"You need to get back on the bottom, I don't like being the one making the undignified noises. Cut it out," Me'ran gasps as he pulls back, finally. She has to heave for air to make up for what he wouldn't back off long enough to let her take in. He had accidentally blocked her nose off with his--or perhaps he'd done that on purpose to get her to open her mouth wider.

"No."

He puts his face between her breasts and kisses one, then bites the other. He uses the hand he's not using to support himself to work the breast his mouth hasn't got occupied. He play-bites her nipple, and a pain and a burst of pleasure rocks through her whole body. She cries out quietly, and she looks down at him at the same time he looks up at her with her nipple still in his mouth. He looks like a dog with a bone, and she scratches his head a little. He bites harder in return, and he tugs a little and moves and bites even harder at the flesh between her breasts, and he pushes his finger back inside her. She reflexively tries to pull away, but he holds her still with the grip with his teeth.

There's a stretching pain between her legs and a slight ache as he pushes a second finger inside her. She writhes a little when he wriggles his fingers, and she twists. Something about the feeling is incredible. She wants nothing more than this, the slight pain and the intense pleasure, and she tries to stop the wriggling, but she just can't.

"Nm!" she tells him. "Stop, stop, stop!" she adds as he starts to push in a third finger. He doesn't, for a second, but then he withdraws and leans over her with his hands over her shoulders.

He grins and the two of them roll together until she winds up back on top, and she's sitting on his hips. She feels his swollen member pressing between her legs, and he rests one hand on her hip and the other on the pinch of her waist.

The two of them work together until she manages to allow him into her. Both of them groan at the same time, though for completely different reasons. It hurts a lot (a LOT). Hiei leans up at the same time she rocks down and he bites her neck and sucks on it. She whimpers anyway, and she almost pulls up, but he holds her hips where they are and stops her from moving at all. He tries moving her down, but she fights that, too. "Fucking human, you're tougher than that," Hiei grumbles.

"You're a big fucking demon, shut up," Me'ran answers.

It takes a while, of adjusting and slowly lowering and sitting, until she and he both do something and, suddenly, it gets better. She slides the rest of the way down on him, and he groans, and then she nearly falls forward. She's almost overwhelmed by how good it feels, and she leans closer to him, putting her hands over his shoulders and rocking her hips back and forth over his. He pushes up against her, but she's the one doing most of the work. Even so, she closes her eyes.

He moves his hips in a strange way, and she nearly falls on top of him. "Oh," she hears herself say. Her eyes open, and she sees him under her and she can't not smile. His whole body's covered with a thin sheen of sweat, which is shining in what light is coming through her window, and she is quietly in awe at how good he can look.

The two of them roll again, and she falls onto her back and he keeps working up against her until, suddenly both of them climax. They're both quiet about it. Both of them make a noise they catch in their throats, then they both sigh quietly, and they shudder and her legs quake for a second, and she starts moving her hips almost frantically through the sensation, until she lets herself fall sideways. Both of them are breathing deeply and slowly.

And it's quiet for a time while she catches her breath, until she rolls back on top of him and straddles his hips and leans close to his face, leaning on her hands over his shoulders again.

"You ready for another go?"

"Hn."


	40. The Next Morning

_The Next Morning_

Me'ran's not sure which she likes better. Being able to sleep in as long as she wants, or being able to sleep with her favorite person in the universe (who is a total fucking jerk) and then sleep in as long as she wants.

When she wakes up, she and Hiei are curled on opposite ends of the bed. Her back is to him, his back is to her, and they've tangled themselves in separate covers. She vaguely remembers deciding to sleep like this to prevent touching in their sleep--neither deals well with contact while unconscious. She sits up carefully, not stirring too much, not even shifting the bed. He's curled up tightly with his eyes closed and his hands curled close to his chest. She's careful not to stare too hard, so as not to disturb him--feeling eyes on one is disconcerting.

She gets up, pulls on a t-shirt and some underwear and goes to the kitchen and sits against the counter, contemplating breakfast. She's half-assing it, though, and she's reliving the night.

The first time was over so quickly she doesn't even remember it. The second time lasted a little longer, and was a little more enthusiastic. The third one lasted even longer, and that time was much more goofballish and playful. And then the fourth, they both just kept going and going and going, even though they both gave that quiet little grunt several times all throughout, and it was well into the morning hours before they both passed out.

Hiei wakes up and wanders into her kitchen, now clad in his pants. She just goes and digs in her fridge and pulls out some eggs and flour and milk and butter.

While she's eating, she realizes she can't feel him sitting next to her.

"You alright? I can't sense you, and you're sitting a grand total of three feet away from me."

"I'm hiding from the Detective. I was hiding it all night last night, too. You should pay attention more."

She grins and giggles. "Aw, trying to keep our affair a secret?" She reaches over and messes with his hair, and his head droops a little before he swats her hand away. She scratches his scalp, and he nearly falls down over his breakfast, only just catching himself on his elbows.

"That's so cute. It's almost as good as when you yawned last night and fell over to sleep."

"Shut up," he responds, swatting her hand away again. "You keep cheating."

"Oh, come on. If I had to knock you down, I could do something besides that."

She grins again and scratches behind his ear. The arm he lifted to push hers away falls to his side, and he sways a little and his eyelids droop. She laughs, but then he pulls his head away and jumps on top of her and pins her down with her arms on the floor. He leans closer to her and she kisses the tip of his nose. He goes cross-eyed, watching her, and she can't stifle the giggles, and she kisses him again. He gets up and straightens his clothes.

"Hn," he grunts. She sits up on her elbows and pushes him and he steps back, then closes his eyes and smirks. "You're pathetic, sometimes."

"Oh yeah? And I just stunned you completely with a simple little touch of the lips."

"Hn," he grunts, but he's smiling. She grins and falls back on the floor and puts the back of her hand to her forehead.

"Oh, the horror, Hiei grunted at me. How will I ever survive?"

"Shut up," he answers, glaring at her. She responds by jumping on him and slamming him to the wall. He makes a sound of pain, but she's hurt, too, so he can kiss her ass.

He tries to fight, but she slings him to the floor and straddles his waist, and chews on what of his ear is exposed.

"Get off," he grunts. She feels it, too, so she rolls off him and he vanishes. She cleans the dishes up and puts them in the kitchen. Then Kurama knocks on the door.

Me'ran calls, "Come in", before she remembers that, one, Hiei left marks, and two, she's not wearing pants. She hears a pair of soft footsteps, and Kurama's voice calls, "Me'ran?"

"In the kitchen," she answers, while she fixes her shirt to hide the bite mark Hiei left. She tries to make sure her hair is hanging down over the wound, too.

"Me'ran?" he asks from the doorway. She puts a kettle on, trying to ignore him. She knows why he's here, she's not sure how she knows, but she knows. Why, why, why did he have to show up the day AFTER Hiei and she finally figured it out?

She shoves a pancake in her mouth and starts on the dishes. "Oh-ha-ou, Kah-ama. O gek--deh ka?"

"Excuse me?" he asks with a laugh.

She pulls the rest of her pancake back into her mouth to chew and swallow before she translates.

"Good morning, Kurama. How are you?"

"I'm well. I was dropping by to check on you. You're in a terribly good mood, this morning."

"Well, a brush with death has a notoriously enlivening thing about it," she says. "I don't think that's a word," she adds.

He puts his hand on her shoulder, and she twitches before she thinks about it.

"Don't," she says quietly. "I think Sho hurt it," she adds. She's lying, but she doesn't want Kurama to see that mark on her neck.

"My apologies. You should try to learn how to heal your own wounds."

"I have to see them," she says, petting her shoulder/moving her collar back up to hide the bite. She knows he saw, his whole body shows her a different sort of... thing.

He sits at her table, and she pours him some tea, then sits across from him. He is quiet for a minute, until, finally, he speaks.

"I don't suppose you remember..." Pause.

"Remember what?"

"Well. When Hiei and I were talking... when you were awake that night..."

"Oh, the you being in love with me thing." She hates to be so blunt about it, but pussyfooting around is not a skill of Me'ran's.

"Yes," he answers, looking mildly sickened, like she said something gross.

It's quiet again. Kurama stares hard at the corner of the table, and his thumb is in his mouth while he chews at it meekly.

She feels mildly guilty. She doesn't say anything for a minute, and she looks at the table, rather than the pain in his face. He knows, and she knows he knows. Dammit. "I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?" he sighs. He sounds so defeated. She wishes he would just leave. "I was just. Well. This is very silly. But. Is there any hope?"

"What? Hope for what?"

"Us."

She has to force herself to stifle the laughs, which hurt her chest. That sounded so lame. He is human after all! But then she sees his face, and the pain in it, and she can't laugh anymore.

"Oh, Kurama," she sighs quietly. "I'm sorry... but... No."

He looks even worse than before, and she shrinks a little.

"Is it because of the creator of that bite on your shoulder?" he asks.

She freezes and touches lightly at the mark.

"Actually... no. I like him, yeah, but that's. That's not what it is. You can't blame him for this. You're just not my type. I'm not big on being protected, you know? Little miss Counter dependent... I just... You remind me of my grandmother."

"Hm," he says lightly. Me'ran sees his eyes are sad, and she stops looking. "I suppose I'll learn to cope... Though I think I'll have a talk with Hiei..."

"She made a choice, Fox," Hiei says from the doorway. Me'ran jumps when she sees him. "I didn't do anything to induce it."

"Dammit, don't scare me like that. He's right, though, Kurama. S'not his fault. He even tried to kill me and all."

She lies across the table for a second, and Kurama is quiet, and Hiei's waiting for him to break the silence.

"Okay, well, I'm leaving, now. Don't break anything if you fight," she sighs exasperatedly and quickly, going without any pause to her room to pull on a bra and some pants, then go to the window and hop out. Then she starts to walk, trying to ignore the likelihood of coming home to a fucked-beyond-recognition apartment or a dead friend or dead lover. Stupid males.


	41. Unlikely Retreat

So, I don't like this chapter.

I couldn't decide what I wanted to be in this space, I couldn't decide how I wanted things to turn out, I couldn't write anything I liked.

So if any of you have any good ideas, suggestions, or just something you wanna see—Tell me, for the love of god, tell me! I have no ideas! Writer's block's been ass-raping me for a while, now, and I'm sick of it, and if you can help me, please don't hesitate to message or comment or something! And do not assume that people already have!! Please!!! HELP!

-R.F.

* * *

_Unlikely Retreat_

It kind of surprises her when she figures out where she's headed.

The train stop is only slightly familiar on this end, approaching it, but the stairs on the way up to the temple are very familiar. She wishes she could count how many times she'd climbed them under orders of that frightening evil woman.

Her bare feet sound quietly up the stone steps, and she can feel all kinds of energies ahead of her, residue left over from everyone needing help and the demons that have chosen to attempt an attack.

She's not surprised to see the short old woman standing at the top of the stairs. The old bitch has got her arms folded behind her back and she's staring at Me'ran with the dull pink eyes, looking quite unhappy about something.

"Hello, Genkai," Me'ran sings pleasantly. Genkai responds when the younger woman steps into her range by giving her a good slug to the head. The lancing pain catches her off guard, and Me'ran ducks and holds her hand under her hair in an attempt to make sure her skull isn't broken..

There is a pause as Genkai breathes out the smoke from her cigarette. "The hell have you been getting yourself into!?" she then demands loudly, standing six steps ahead of the young woman and therefore able to loom over her. Me'ran looks up at the grouchy old woman and takes another blow to the head. "Answer me! What's this about kidnapped and trying to die, huh!? Haven't I taught you anything?"

"You have, Master Genkai!" Me'ran says quickly, shifting her duck into a bow immediately. "I went along with the kidnapper willingly, and the one that tried to kill me got me while I was trying to help Yuusuke and caught me off guard! Plus, I didn't know he was Indestructible, I didn't think--"

"I'll say you didn't think! Get your ass in here, you're only half healed!" And with that, Genkai steps out of the way and starts moving back towards the temple. Me'ran's only just figuring out that it's her cue to follow when Genkai turns to look at her again and snaps. "Come on!"

Me'ran moves into the temple's living room where a sweet-faced Yukina is standing, waiting for the two of them. She smiles brightly at sight of Me'ran, but then she sees the gash on her eyebrow and she kind of frowns. "Have you been getting yourself hurt?" she asks.

Me'ran grins stupidly and shrugs. "I just can't stay out of trouble," she admits sing-songily.

Genkai punches Me'ran in the back of the head again. "Guess it's a good thing you showed up, Erufib," Genkai finally sighs. "Yukina wants to learn more healing methods, and she needs a test dummy."

Me'ran swings to look at the little old woman and scowls. "Does test dummy mean--"

"It does," she confirms knowingly. "Now take your shirt off and let's see that slice up your side before it gets to be septic."

"I resent that remark! I may not be able to heal myself, but I can at least take care of myself!"

"It's under your right arm, there's only so much you can do with your left hand and limited vision. Now, sit," she says imperatively. Not giving her the option of doing it on her own, Genkai jumps up and punches Me'ran in the head hard enough to knock her down, this time, then sits her back up with a well-positioned kick to the back of the neck.

"Aaagh!" Me'ran complains loudly, covering her head.

"Shirt off, there's that hole in your side that Botan didn't heal right."

"Be nice about that, she did pretty well," Me'ran argues, tugging her shirt over her head and twisting to look at the wound in her side. Yukina waits for Me'ran to lift her right arm before moving any closer.

"Black blood," Genkai acknowledges as Me'ran tugs the gauze off. Then Genkai gives the girl another blow to the head, almost knocking her over. Me'ran's arm brushed the wound, and, looking at the blood that hit her forearm, she realizes that, indeed, it is black. It should have closed by now, but it hasn't. Even so, she has to try to resist the urge to hit the old woman back.

"The hell do you think you're doing, you old bitch, you're gonna make it come all the way open!" ((Just imagine the big-head anime thing with the shouting))

Genkai does seem to take more time, and the usually determined-if-not-straight-up-bitchy face fades to concern and thoughtfulness. She sits Me'ran up forcefully and lifts her arm again. The healer can feel the old hand touching at it and prodding, and then there's a slicing pain when she does something that Me'ran can't see. She pulls away, but Genkai's surprisingly strong hand takes hold of Me'ran's arm and holds her still.

"Aaagh, the fuck are you doing?" Me'ran cries unhappily.

"Yukina, that moron training in the next room, could you bring him here?" Genkai requests, totally ignoring Me'ran.

"Yes ma'am," Yukina says softly as she gets up and leaves the room.

"The hell do you need someone else in here for? And can I put my shirt back on?"

"You're wearing a sports bra, what do you care?" she challenges.

"I don't want anyone with a dick seein' me around without a shirt!" Me'ran argues. She smirks.

"I'm thinking Hiei can disprove that."

Me'ran's stunted for a second, then swings at the short old woman, missing deliberately. "Damn, how'd you know that?!"

Genkai laughs in the evilest way Me'ran's ever heard, then points at her neck. "Bite wound. Pretty nasty one, too. Sharp teeth made that one. Kurama or Hiei made it, and I don't think Kurama'd bite you that hard. So, tell me, how'd Kurama take the news?"

Me'ran's face flushes before she mumbles, "Well, he and Hiei are probably fighting about now..."

Genkai laughs. "Well, between a fire demon and a fox demon, I would guess so. Fox demons don't like sharing what they want, and elementals refuse to share what they have." She looks like she's going to say more, but then the boy Genkai was evidently training and Yukina step in, cutting the conversation short, thank god. Me'ran checks to make sure she doesn't know the kid from school or something. Probably not. He's about fourteen or so, kinda short with thick black hair and dull eyes. Face is kinda long, too. He looks at the half-naked girl and blushes, then lowers his head.

"Yes, Master Genkai?" the boy asks, turning to Genkai and bowing low. Genkai rolls her eyes.

"Come here and hold this girl still," she commands, pointing at Me'ran.

"He can't," the blue-eyed girl points out in the sweetest curt voice ever used. "I'm probably twice as strong as this kid'll ever be," she adds.

"You won't be able to get away from him without hurting him," Genkai informs her evenly, giving her a level look.

This wreaks a different look in Me'ran, who winces and shrinks down a little, immediately remembering every accidental pain she's ever caused anyone. "But my reflexes---if you do something fatal---you're going to be messing with my liver and ribs and all that important stuff---and if you do something wrong, I'll--"

"Just have to control yourself. I'm just trying to keep Yukina from getting hurt by that obnoxious self-preservation. Now, be a good girl and let Hachirou hold you still," Genkai answers snippily.

The boy timidly moves across the room and he looks at her and she looks up at him. Then she narrows her eyes at him and bares her sharp white teeth, and he takes a step back.

"Hachirou, come here!" snaps Genkai irritably. "That girl wouldn't hurt you if you were preparing to cut out her intestines and make her eat them. She's just trying to scare you."

"Way to call my bluff, bitch," Me'ran grumbles. Genkai grabs the kid's collar and drags him over to the girl.

"But Genkai, my sensing thing's going all kinds of--" he's arguing.

"Of course it is; she's as close to immortal as humans get, they always feel funny. Now. Put her into a full nelson, would you?"

The dull-eyed boy moves closer to Me'ran again and kneels behind her. He pauses again, starting to move and stopping three times before Me'ran loses patience and growls quietly at him. He does it once more, so she holds her arms up for him. He, very, very hesitantly, wraps his elbows around her arms and folds his hands behind her neck. She finds a place to put her arms that's comfortable and she watches as Genkai and Yukina kneel next to her right side.

After a few more seconds of examination, Genkai starts to prod again, and eventually shoves a finger into the gash. Me'ran growls quietly and groans through gritted teeth and her arm muscles tense.

"What are you doing!?" she snaps at Genkai at the same time the boy asks, "Master Genkai?" and tightens his hold.

"You heal better than this," Genkai states, apparently confused by something. "I'm trying to figure out if this can be healed at all. Botan's powers are stronger than this, and it wasn't very big. She should have at least healed the cut to the insides. Koenma's never seen an Indestructible live through an attack from another one. I'm thinking this is because your body's actually trying to die, now that it has the chance."

"Well, that's too bad for it, I ain't dyin' yet," Me'ran grumbles angrily. Then the cold wrinkly hands go to either side of the slit up her side, and she has to stop herself from tossing to keep herself from hurting the hell out of Hachirou. Genkai chose her binding methods well, because the position, due to their heights and the positions of her arms, holds a big risk of breaking his neck.

"Master Genkai, she's doing something--" Hachirou starts to complain.

"Erufib!" snaps Genkai. "Stop that!"

"Stop what?" Me'ran snaps back, glaring at the hag and willing herself to not hurt anyone again, barely stopping the twitching muscles under the flesh.

"Your reiki! You've got more control of yourself than that!"

Me'ran realizes that she is seeing bright red, then she shakes her head and suppresses it. "I don't know what the hell you're doing, but it hurts more than it should, and I want you to stop," she whimpers. "My body's doing it on my own, so whatever you're doing, you should probably stop."

"Erufib-san--" begins Yukina.

"Don't call me 'san'," Me'ran whines. "Genkai, stop it, now."

She doesn't. Instead, she pulls the skin farther apart. Me'ran's arm starts to move on its own, but she freezes herself, closing her eyes and concentrating on staying calm.

"Yukina, you see that space, next to the bone, the dark spot?"

"Why are you looking at my bones?!" the healer-girl snaps, half-frantic and half-angry. The statement inspires her to open her eyes and look at the gash herself. She can't see, though, because of the arms and breast obscuring her vision and the position of her neck.

"It's just your rib, relax. He cut you pretty deep, and it's not like the flesh there's thick," informs Genkai.

A few fingers intrude her chest cavity and she is suddenly aware of the fact that she's thinking of wolves or dogs turning around and biting the hand of a person petting them. She's quiet, though, and she breathes slowly and forces herself to relax. Any struggling will hurt the little human pretending to hold her still, she reminds herself as her arms twitch again to slide away from Hachirou. The muscles are writhing under her skin, and she moves so that Hachirou can get a better hold, suddenly aware of her own power.

The heat of being healed spreads over her side, and she relaxes the rest of the way. It's much easier to do so, and, in fact, feels pretty good.

"It's putting up a fight," Yukina says. "It doesn't want to close."

"Start at the inside, the deepest point," Me'ran instructs knowledgably.

The warmth starts again, then Yukina sits back. "I can't heal it. It's refusing to close, almost lashing back at me with the ki."

"Erufib, make it stop that."

"I haven't been doing a damn thing, anything my reiki's doing, It's out of my jurisdiction."

"Yukina, scoot back," Genkai orders. Yukina moves away. "Hachirou, get a good grip, and do not let her go." And he does so. Genkai moves one of his hands to the back of her head. "Get a grip on her hair; I don't want her slipping out."

"The hells are you about to do?" Me'ran asks Genkai, looking at the old woman out of the corners of her eyes. The boy slides a hand under her hair and grips gently, and Me'ran rolls her eyes. "Don't take it easy on me, idiot. If you do this wrong, I might kill you. You know how to grab someone by the hair, now do it."

Genkai looks at Me'ran, then at Hachirou. "Hachirou, you heard her."

Me'ran realizes that Genkai's moving out of the line of sight, and she tries to turn her head, but Hachirou catches her head and hair and holds her almost perfectly still.

"Got her, Hachirou?" Genkai asks from the back of the room.

"Yes, ma'am."

And with that, there's a stabbing pain, and Me'ran almost lashes out, again, but she forces herself to stay still, stilling her twitching arm. And then there's another pain, and this time, it's her legs that react, twitching violently and nearly unfolding to stand before Me'ran leashes herself. The third time, she shifts and moves, nearly getting up and throwing both of them, but she masters herself before she hurts anyone, despite the fact that Genkai moves away from her lashing legs and Hachirou's holding most of her weight by her hair and arms.

"Hachirou, let go of her," Genkai commands, now. She vanishes through one room, then comes back. There's a burning smell, but when Me'ran starts to move to look, Genkai catches her hair and holds her head straight. "Don't look if you know what's good for you."

Hachirou moves away, leaving her to sit on her knees with her hands on her head and her eyes screwed shut. Then there's an intense pain and a hissing noise as something incredibly hot makes contact with the wound. Me'ran stays calm for a whole tenth of a second, but her body finally frees itself of her willpower, and she lashes out and strikes Genkai's head with her elbow, throwing her a few steps away.

No sooner than the woman hits the floor, Me'ran scurries to her side and heals the little knot already forming over her temple.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to--"

"Shut up already," Genkai snaps. "It's healed."

Me'ran looks at the skin and sees that it is closed, having been burned shut, and the skin over it is a deep scar, apparently having been healed at the same time as it was burned closed.

"The hell'd you do that for?! Why'd it hurt?!"

"Because normal healing wasn't working, I had to do something different. You can go back to meditating, Hachirou."

"Remind me to kick you when I get over the lack of will to harm," Me'ran complains. "The hell'd you do, burn it shut?"

* * *

After that, things go back to normal. Me'ran pulls on her shirt, the boy goes back to meditating, and Yukina serves tea and the three females engage in small-talk, Me'ran carefully dancing away any subject that would lead to the, uh, conjugation of herself and Hiei last night.

Apparently, Genkai wants to talk about it. "So, tell me, Erufib-kun," Genkai says with a sly smile. "When did you and Hiei finally get to it?"

Yukina blushes a little, and Me'ran sees a smile creep onto the sweet face.

"Hang on--Yukina, what's with the face?"

She blushes and looks at her and smiles again, but less shyly. "Oh, it's nothing, really. I'm happy Hiei-sama and Me'ran-sama have gotten close. He's always seemed so sad. I think you and he would be good together."

Me'ran smiles back. "Yeah, that bastard's lucky as hell I ain't ripped his skin off, yet."

Genkai smirks. "You're a sucker for badboys, you know it."

"That I am," Me'ran sighs dejectedly. "And poor Kurama, he's just breathing down both our necks."

"I wondered about him--when he brought you up here, he didn't take his eyes off you 'til he had to," Genkai hums over her tea. "Don't get Hiei killed by him."

"Yeah, yeah. What about you, you got a boyfriend, hag?" Me'ran snaps playfully. "Hachirou seems kinda young for you."

She glares at Me'ran. Me'ran figures she hit a nerve she shouldn't have been aiming at, so she shrinks back and smiles weakly. "Sorry, Genkai, I just wanted off the subject of me and who I love."

"Love? Is it that far?" asks the old woman, looking kind of dully surprised.

"Well, I haven't killed him, I saved his life after he pissed me off, and I saved his life again after he pissed me off, and I figure that at this point, we're kinda at least in love."

"Poor boy," she sighs into her tea.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means--" says a gentle, but still very emotion-ridden male voice from the doorway, "that you and he are destined to drift apart as your age takes you."

"Hello, Kurama. Is my apartment in one piece?" Me'ran asks, looking up at the red-haired manling.

"Yuusuke sensed the youki and sent us outside, so Hiei and I departed and continued our fight at a nearby open area."

"In that case, is my lover in one piece?"

"That is up for discussion. We are each in possession of all but one extremity apiece. I am missing my thumb where he is missing his forefinger."

The three females in the room look up at him. Genkai's smirking, Yukina looks horrified, and Me'ran can't stifle the laugh.

"Do you have this thumb?" Me'ran inquires, leaning back and turning to face him.

"Yes. Hiei has the glass of ice with each extremity, he should be here shortly--ahh."

There's a thud on the table as the glass of red ice is placed in front of her. The black-clad individual came in the window, and he's very determinedly not looking at anyone alive in the room and seems much focused on the opposite wall.

"Hiei-sama! You're bleeding!" Yukina yelps. Hiei turns his head behind his shoulder and holds out the injured hand, still not saying a word. Me'ran picks out his forefinger and reattaches it simply enough.

"It's not as bad as what you cut off me," the human girl jokes, smirking.

"Goddamned fox," he says, growling. Then he vanishes. Kurama approaches the table as well and holds out his wounded hand. Me'ran reaches up and takes the layers of washcloth and gauze and ice capped with a handkerchief to attach his thumb, then stands up.

"Sorry for the disturbance, Genkai. Thank you for healing my side. I'm going to go home and clean up what mess was made. Thank you for the tea, too."

And she leaves Kurama at Genkai's temple without looking back.


	42. The Fight

Gift. Wasn't a part of the fic, actually, but I figure you wouldn't mind seeing the fight. I pride myself on being able to write out fight scenes. I was thinking about replacing the last chapter with this one. I still am. Any opinions?

So here you go.

* * *

_The Fight_

Hiei enters the dining room where Me'ran and Kurama are sitting. He notices irritably that she is still not wearing pants. The least she could have done was dressed before facing him. A single look at him tells Hiei exactly what Kurama has on his mind. Me'ran isn't noticing this, or is completely discarding it, but Kurama's eyes are glued to her, and his scent is reeking ungranted wishes and desires.

"Is it because of the creator of that bite on your shoulder?" Kurama's asking her. He sounds like he's had his heart ripped open. Poor fox. He should have tried harder.

She decides to give it to him honestly.

"Actually, no," she tells him. "I like him, yeah, but that's..." She has to pause to think. Idiot girl, and damn that bastard for putting her in that situation. Her body language reeks of pain and nervousness. She doesn't want to shoot him down. "That's not what it is," she finally tells him. "You can't blame him for this. You're just not my type. I'm not big on being protected, you know?" Oh, come on, you little brat, just tell him that you don't like him, stop offering him false hope and opportunities to change if you have no intention of giving him the chance. "Little miss Counter-dependent," she mumbles. "I just. You remind me of my grandmother."

At that, it's all Hiei can do to stop the laugh in his throat.

Kurama responds by letting his usually well-maintained posture and show drop. His head and shoulders fall as his back arches, and he stares at the table. "Hn," Kurama says. Me'ran turns her head away. Hn, poor little empath. So weak, she can't even deal with someone else's pain. But then Kurama surprises both of them. "I suppose I'll learn to cope," he says first. Not surprising, but then, "Though, I think I'll have a talk with Hiei."

That damn fox. We had an agreement, and I did nothing to shift her attentions to either one of us. There wasn't even a loophole that Kurama could be mad at him through. "We will let her make her choice. Rules of engagement, we cannot deliberately turn her affections away from the other one, and we must let her make the first moves. And, as a request, Hiei, could you stop kidnapping her? That's an unfair advantage, that you can take her out of my reach."

And Hiei did not kidnap her. He followed her when she was kidnapped, and he stayed with her when she was hurt, and she'd even pissed him off since then and for a time, they did not speak! This was not his fault.

"She made a choice, Fox," Hiei snipped, tired of hiding and burning to get some of that off his chest. "I didn't do anything to induce it."

His voice had startled the brat human girl, but neither Kurama nor Hiei were listening to her as she started to talk, probably speaking in someone's defense. Green eyes met red ones as they stared the other one down.

They continue to ignore her, until she stands up and leaves the room. The only thing Hiei hears is, "don't break anything if you fight". And then he hears the sliding door to the balcony open a little wider so she can slip through, and he hears her footsteps on the railing side of the balcony, and then silence.

* * *

Kurama has risen to his feet, Hiei is still staring him down, and the blue and green-laced-with-gold kis are lashing about the room. Both of them are something resembling "careful". They don't let out whole waves, for fear of breaking something and getting the woman evicted, or causing her undue irritation, but both of them are letting more and more seep out to push against the other's wave.

Until, suddenly, there's a young man standing in the doorway.

"What the hell's wrong with you two?!" demands Yuusuke. "Get the hell out of here before someone else feels this and comes by!"

Hiei waits for Kurama to withdraw the sudden swell before he lets his own fall, but neither moves for a second. Yuusuke's still standing, baffled, waiting for an explanation or to figure it out on his own. Not likely.

"Are you challenging me?" Hiei mocks laughingly, smiling at the red-head cockily.

"Yes," Kurama answers. That surprises Yuusuke and Hiei both. He's actually going to fight for her? Accepting a challenge from one of his friends?

"What're you fighting over?" Yuusuke asks dumbly.

"Don't mind that, Yuusuke. Demon business. You may understand one day," Kurama says peaceably, already staring out the door. "That park where you and she fought? I believe the stain on the grass will help us both find it, ne?"

So he knew about that, too, huh? Bastard, he's probably been spying on us. He probably knew before he saw that bite on her neck what we did last night.

It hasn't even occurred to Hiei that he should be worried about the outcome of this fight. Kurama is a good fighter, but Hiei, if he felt it necessary, could move faster than Kurama could ever dream to, and all he had to do was make it clear that he could kill Kurama before anything happened to him, he reasoned.

* * *

Kurama and Hiei are facing off, now. Kurama's energy is lashing out in a way that looks like what most people would call "uncontrollably", but this is perfectly controlled, and it is in a show of anger and power. It is the equivalent of baring one's teeth and roaring.

Kurama is rather amused at himself for letting himself be reduced to such meaningless demon habits. Of course, humans did this, too, but in different ways. They would compete for a female, for rights to her. This is slightly less fair on Kurama's behalf, because he has very little to work with, in the way of the female. He knows she does not particularly like him, but... with... Dammit, if he wins this fight, then he could figure it out. There was no need to think it all out if he wasn't going to be able to win this, they'd just be empty plans.

"You ready, Fox?" mocks Hiei's dark, cold voice. The short half-Koorime man is standing with his sword drawn, not even bothering to remove his cloak for this fight, showing Kurama his version of baring his teeth and roaring with his cocky nature.

"Naturally, Hiei--I challenged you, after all. Are you prepared to fight, or would you rather take some time to take advantage of my anger and poke at it some more?"

"Hn," Hiei mocks. That is the go-ahead for the fight to begin. Kurama is going to see what he can get away with. It is not sneaking as much as stealth, and if Hiei chooses to stand there and mock him, then so be it--he is making himself an easier target.

The ground around the area had been scattered with ivy plants and rose seeds and about ten feet to Hiei's left, there was a plant that had poisonous flowers. Kurama had been facing that one, knowing Hiei's preferred distance, but the direction had been a little off. Hiei is not enough of a tactician to care about where in relation to his foe he chooses to stand.

Kurama forces the ivy plants to rip themselves up and out of the ground, calling on the grass to help. He would have to keep the poisonous one hidden until after Hiei has been sufficiently trapped. The plants surround Hiei and wrap him up tightly. He had not been expecting that. Kurama smiles to himself. Already, this was going very well.

"Hiei, you're getting sloppy, letting yourself be taken off guard like that," Kurama mocks, happy to get some of the aggression off his chest, venting through Hiei's rage.

A blade nearly meets Kurama's face as Hiei twirls the sword in his hands, freeing half of his body, and then hacking much of the ivy off with this movement, and he goes right for Kurama.

Kurama uses his whip to catch the blade, holding it between his hands and then wrapping it around his blade. The simple sword was not going to break through Kurama's nearly all-powerful weapon, especially not while the whip was charged with Kurama's anger.

Hiei gives a little roar and tries to pull his sword free to no avail. Kurama wraps the whip around again, moving the thing down to the hilt, trapping one of Hiei's fingers under it. Hiei roars again, then pulls free, releasing the sword, and he jumps away. Kurama is caught off guard when a fist meets the center of his back. Were he not a demon, that would have broken his back, but as it was, it just hurt like hell. Kurama whirls and sends his whip to lash the offender in two, but Hiei's no longer there.

The red-head's caught off guard again when an elbow meets his cheek bone hard enough to make him see stars. He cries out in pain and staggers--but Hiei made a big mistake, letting Kurama know where he was.

The ivy plants shoot up and seize Hiei's wrists and ankles, holding him in the air, failing like a mad-man.

"Fucking plants!" Hiei barks. Kurama feels a wave of heat from the little fire demon, but he calls on the seeds farthest from Hiei to wrap him up, and then second farthest, up utnil Hiei resembles a writhing plant with a face.

"Fucking plants!" Hiei cries again, struggling to move. Kurama leaves him there, knowing that Hiei would not be able to burn the plants well enough to get away; he picks up the poisonous plant and drops it next to Hiei's writhing form and calls on it to grow. The leaves wrap around Hiei as well, binding him further, but Hiei recognizes this (did he meet one in his childhood?) and starts fighting more frantically. The plant's stem wraps around his neck and the head of the plant, where the bud is already beginning to bloom, presses against his lips almost romantically. Hiei twists his back unnaturally, bending backwards and to one side, until he's almost completely turned around at the waist. The plant, to keep its hold on him without letting him break it (They were brittle from the lack of water, since he'd continued to heat his body that much) lets him closer to the ground, and then Kurama sees his great mistake.

Hiei's sword is right below him.

The blade meets the plants and Hiei hits the ground. Kurama holds up a hand to defend himself as Hiei lunges, and he cries out in pain as his thumb is severed, distracting him as Hiei pins him to the ground with the point of his sword at the red-head's neck.

"Damn," Kurama sighs after he realizes just what position he's in.

"You've lost. The woman's mine. If I even smell you on her, now I'll remove something you'll miss more than your thumb. Now, this is over, we are going to Genkai's, and you are going to leave both of us alone."

Kurama silently agrees, letting Hiei move off him before standing up and retrieving the digits on the ground. Hiei is returning to her apartment to get ice and a cup and Kurama wraps his hand in a handkerchief and starts for the train station.


	43. Normal Life I Guess

_Normal Life. I Guess. _

Sunday was spent trying to fix her sleep schedule and being weird around her apartment, washing blood off surfaces that shouldn't have blood on them and singing so loudly that the neighbors ask if she has a dying cat in here, because we're not allowed to have animals, and what was that disturbing racket, earlier? Monday, though, she wakes up at six in the morning, an hour later than normal, with Hiei curled up on her feet.

She dresses for school, and she's still pulling the jacket closed when Hiei sits up. She was sure he'd been awake and silent and still until he figured out what she was doing. His large red eyes gazed evenly at her, but she, so accustomed to it, didn't do anything. "Why bother?"

"With what?"

"School. You've already missed too many days out of the year, and you're much greater use outside of that wretched prison."

"Because I need something normal after a week of sleeping and another two weeks in demon world, then nearly dying, then being tortured by a mean old bitch under the ruse of healing." He grunts, and she kisses him. "Normalcy drives me insane. If I'm sure you're going to be here waiting for me to do into the wall, I'll come home early."

"That night ended with my bruised backside on the floor and you pounding them through it--it's my turn to do you into the wall. Now stop behaving like a horny school girl."

"But I am a horny school girl!"

He walks towards her, suddenly getting a strange and lusty look in his face and she backs into the door and leans against it. He leans close to her, looking straight up at her. She kisses his nose (He goes cross-eyed to watch), then he opens the door and sends her tumbling out of it. And he throws her backpack, hitting her in the head with it. And then he shuts the door.

Me'ran rolls on the floor and gets up, then goes out to the stairs, and she goes down to the ground. Kurama's waiting for her, but he hardly waits for her to get close to him before he takes off running. She runs with him.

They get to school late. They ran as fast as they could, outrunning every bus and train she could possibly have taken, and she slides in the hall and nearly jerks her arm out of socket when she grabs the doorway to pull herself into it, and the bell rings and she scrambles for her seat. The teacher (Whom she ran past in the hallway) grins at her as he comes in, and she smiles and waves and he lets her alone. She leans over the desk and smiles. Then the classes continue, all day, and she keeps hearing whispers.

Then lunch rolls around, and she learns why they were all whispering.

* * *

"Where'd you go?" one student asks, standing in front of her desk and leaning in a little.

"Where've you been?" demands another who is standing next to her chair.

"Where'd that scar come from?" inquires a curious one who is standing on her other side and is poking at her eyebrow. It's everything she can do to not break his hand, but she does swat him away.

"Did you get into a fight?" queries a fourth one delightedly, leaning next to the one in front of her, elbows on her desk.

"You were gone for three weeks! Did they hospitalize you? Did you go back to America? What's that bruise on your neck?" grills the fifth one excitedly, bouncing next to her desk.

"Hey, where'd bump on your head come from? Is someone at home beating you? Do you need help?" asks a sweet-faced girl kindly, putting her hand on Me'ran's arm.

As a natural reaction to being surrounded without being allowed to wound anyone, Me'ran covers her head and hides under a textbook, until Kurama's voice sounds quietly from behind the foremost one. "Erufib-san?" he calls firmly over the students' heads. "May I have a word with you?"

In half an instant, all the peers flocked around her jump away from her and behind, keeping away from the amazing Shuuichi, who Me'ran is now considering--despite the removal of an important finger from her lover--very, very kind for saving her. She gets up quickly and follows him to the door, and she closes the door. The door cracks again, so she and Kurama move away from it smoothly.

"What is it, K--S--... Minamino-kun?" She curses herself for stuttering. She had opened her mouth, and then remembered that he is not "Kurama", and calling him by his first name would make her look familiar with him, and that would be unwanted because then the twits in class would bug her, too.

"I was wondering if, perhaps, you could help me with something in the lab after school. I need an extra pair of hands, and I know that you've been absent for three weeks, and will need help recovering your grades."

He lowers his voice and his head, and she gets a little closer, preparing to be unable to hear whatever it is he has to say after this.

"I was making sure you were alright. You weren't in the best of conditions last I saw you, and I know that one of your teachers does not appreciate you and would take advantage of the fact that you were late."

"I'm fine, everything's alright. I'm not bleeding anymore. Genkai made sure of that with something very, very hot," she whispers back. "That's easily one of the ugliest scars I've ever gotten, and that's even counting what I got from the Shouakki."

"You're still very pale," he says concernedly. "Not enough for most to notice, but you're a shade grayer than normal, and the dark under your eyes is concerning."

"Oh, blood replenishes itself, you know that. I probably lost a bit of the protein making thingy when I lost that chunk of liver that she burned off. Hag. But I should be fine in a month or so."

He moves a little closer and whispers even more quietly. "Please, be more careful in the future."

"Get away from my face, the girls in class will think we're an item, and the fact that you're talking to me at all is going to be a pain in the neck. They'll all be wearing boys' uniforms, tomorrow."

He smiles and backs up a little, but not much. "It really is becoming. That color brings out your skin color. And it makes your eyes the strangest shade of blue."

"My eyes rely on my mood. The uniform doesn't make my eyes this blue, school does."

He smiles again, then waves. "I'll see you after classes," he says in his usual breathy businessman voice as he walks away.

More girls join the questioning crowd after she gets back in the door, and she winds up hiding under her desk with a cry for help from the teacher. She is, however, not rescued until after lunch is over.

* * *

Then, after classes, she meets with Kurama in the science lab and joins him with the test tubes. She's trying to not get distracted by the large imported snake they have in the terrarium, but she can't resist, when her make-up work gets fantastically boring, going over there and trying to open it, and every time she thinks she has it, Kurama calls her back over. Dammit.

"Me'ran, please, stop acting like a five-year-old. How was your first day back in three weeks?" he asks as he stirs the contents of the graduated test tube. She watches semi-interestedly as the liquid inside turns an ugly shit brown.

"Chaotic. Make-up work and curious idiots. And then you showed up and made the crowd grow, because all the girls wanted to know our relationship. The head of your fan-club would have attacked me had I not told her I was gay."

"My apologies. I forget how popular I am, sometimes," he says with a brief smile. His tones are lying.

"Scorpio," Me'ran says with a smile, picking up one of the other tubes and stirring the stuff. The liquid has turned yellow-green. "Huh. Look, Ku--Minamino-kun, it doesn't need the carbon dioxide to produce oxygen. Is this the one that can live underwater?"

"No... that one is the... Wait. That's not right, what did you do to it?"

"I didn't do anything; I work with meat, not chlorophyll. Maybe we mixed up leaves?"

The red-haired boy shoots a "Me? How dare you!" look that would kill, but she just giggles and puts it back. Kurama is much nicer to be around when he's not worried for her. He's much less overbearing when he has something interesting distracting him. She's actually having a conversation, and he's not staring.

"A girlfriend, Shuuichi?" a strange, snide voice says from right behind her, almost right in her ear. Me'ran is startled, and her arm moves to attack, but her other hand catches her own wrist, and she puts it back on the table. He did that on purpose, she realizes as he chortles and moves to one side, pushing his glasses up his nose in the lamest attempt to look casual she's ever seen.

"Don't scare her, Kaito. She is one of us, and she is more instinctual than most humans and I'm not sure what damage she could accidentally cause you, and I don't think she'd appreciate the broken hand if you were to defend yourself with your territory. Also--she's not my girlfriend, she's Hiei's."

"Shut up," Me'ran snaps quietly, blushing and paling at once, everything but her cheeks going cold while her cheeks burn with a sudden fresh heat. Then that fades almost immediately when the thought occurs to her and she looks at the weird kid with the afro. He knows about Hiei? She looks at Kurama to ask about this, but then she sees that Kurama has a bitter smile on his face, and she can't bring herself to ask about that fact or even mention Hiei's name. Kaito is studying Me'ran, so he doesn't notice the look on Kurama's face. She considers breaking his glasses so he doesn't stare at her anymore, but she doesn't let herself.

"Hiei's capable of compassion?" Kaito eventually says. "You learn new things every day. You're the new American girl, yes? Erufib? I've heard of you. And the fact that you are often seen with Shuuichi and that you wear a boy's uniform." He pauses, then pushes his glasses back up his nose. "I've also heard that you're quite the teacher's pet. Everyone but Ueda seems to have taken a liking to you."

"That's not really true. The only teacher that likes me is Hanajima-sensei, and that's just a little more leniency because I'm fluent in English."

"How do you explain your grades, then?" he asks, leaning closer to Me'ran and leaning to look at her face. "I know how slack American teaching is--how on earth are you making the adjustment to Japan's school system so easily if you're not a favorite?"

Something about his tones just really does not sit well with Me'ran, and she narrows her eyes at him, then releases a storm of swear words in her home language to avoid being heard cussing him in a language everyone already knows. "_First off, my good goddamned grades are none of your fucking business. Second off, I make the good goddamned grades because, yes, I am that fucking smart. Who the hell are you to challenge a complete fucking stranger's intelligence? Why the hell do you care anyway? In fact--who the hell are you at all, and why should I give a shit?_"

At the end of the cussing, Kurama's smile becomes less bitter. "This is Kaito, Me'ran. He helped us, not long ago, which is how he knows who Hiei is. Please mind your tongue, our English teacher is fluent, and I don't doubt for an instant that she would recognize the swearwords that I didn't," Kurama explains while Kaito's busy being taken aback by Me'ran's very foul mouth.

"Ah. Why's he here?" she asks, switching back to Japanese easily and keeping her attention on the less-infuriating red-head.

"Well, aren't you rude?" Kaito snips. He's probably unhappy at the cussing he just received combined with the fact that he is being ignored.

"_Yep_," Me'ran answers, narrowing her eyes at him. Kurama cuts his eyes at her in return.

"Be polite, Me'ran. There is no need for hostility, either of you," pleads Kurama.

"I'm not being hostile. It's a natural reaction to people who think they're better than me," Me'ran responds defensively.

"Well, I can certainly see that she and Hiei belong together. The relationship must be mutually abusive, with both ends being hateful, rude, and arrogant," Kaito growls under his breath, probably pretending he doesn't know she can hear him. "I don't understand why you keep this barbaric company, Shuuichi," he says louder, no longer bothering with the ruse.

"Kaito, do not provoke her," a now-wounded-looking Kurama sighs exasperatedly. "Would you like to help us?"

"Why is the great Shuuichi studying plants?" Kaito asks. His attention shifts from the profane American to the plants in the test tubes. "If I remember right, you don't need to—you've got a lot of experience with plants under your belt."

"Plants in the human world are impressive. It's amazing what can be produced with a little youki helping out. I was thinking about growing something a little hardier than roses. I am rather fond of them, but they're weak and hard to care for. Their thorns are their only value."

"Do you have any suggestions? I remember you used some ferns very tactfully, back in the house of four dimensions."

"I could have done much more than that, but I had to avoid acting violently. The properties of..."

Me'ran tries to listen, but it's just not nearly as interesting as blood and meat and organs. She can't listen to this for the simple fact that she can't focus on it. So she starts picking at the plants, and she leans close to one and taps on the tube. It taps back. She's so startled that she almost drops it. She taps it again, and it taps back a second time.

"Minamino-kuuuuun," she sings, holding the tube out in her extended palm. "You fed this plant something wrong." He looks and smiles, then corks the tube and pockets it.

"I suppose I did. Good eye, Erufib-kun."

Kaito looks at Me'ran appraisingly for a second, but she deliberately ignores him until he talks to her.

"What is it you do for your friends? You don't look like much of a fighter, and they already have the brains of the operation."

"I can fight, but I prefer not to. They have the muscle. My job is providing medical attention. I'm the doctor," she says dismissively. But he seems skeptical.

"A doctor? Are you qualified?"

"Well, not legally in human world, but I've done open heart surgery, and I can do this."

She grabs a handful of his hair, pulls him close enough to her to get at his neck, and she places her hand over his neck just right and presses, and he falls limp, almost falling down. She supports his weight by his hair in one hand and holds him like that until he starts to drool, and fixes it, and lets him stand up.

"Ah, I see..." he whimpers. "Which one needs the most help?"

"Mostly Hiei. When I actually follow the boys, Yuusuke needs more attention. Kurama---Dammit. Minamino-kun is usually hurt worst, but mostly by means of fluke. Speaking of-" Me'ran says quickly, turning to face Kurama--"Do you have a scar from the..." Not wanting to say aloud, she trails off and gestures being gutted. "I didn't take those out, but you're a big boy, right?"

"They came out on their own, and I have almost no scar, nothing more than what the stitches left and those were minimal. You did excellently."

Kaito looks at Me'ran, then at Kurama. The arrogant look is completely gone, and he is now gawping open-mouthed at her. Hah, smug bastard, how d'ya like them apples?

"You're serious..." he mumbles with a tone of awe, once he finds his voice. "Stitches?"

"First day on the job, too," she says with a slight smile. "First time. It's almost boring, now, I've done it so many times. I can do it in my sleep. I think I did, once or twice, when I was working for lady Rat-Face."

"Who?" Kaito asks, narrowing his eyes. "This would be a companion before I came along?" he asks Kurama, quirking his eyebrow.

"No companion of ours, Kaito. Me'ran's quite popular among the less human species," Kurama explains vaguely. "It's disconcerting and delighting at once, I admit, but she is amazingly well known among most sentient demons, and she treats demons as her own race. I'm inclined to believe that she actually prefers demons to humans. But I digress, my apologies--she is well appreciated amongst demons."

"What does that mean?" Kaito demands, not understanding.

"I got kidnapped. It's where I was the second and third weeks of absence. I have a reputation in Demon World. I forgot her name, but she was in the middle of a war and had me come help her. Got to put a heart back together. What he was doing alive after that in the first place is beyond me." She picks up the test tube with one of the plants in it and shakes it a little, trying to keep from looking too smug.

"Her name was Arisana Sazuna, Me'ran. You could at least remember the names of who owe you, it will make debt collections in times of need slightly easier," Kurama sighs. For some reason, he looks put out, and he's got his eyes leveled at the girl across from him, looking quite unhappy about something.

"Times of need?" Kaito asks, just as confused as his female peer.

"She's been carted off to Demon World several times. Times of need would come in many forms for a human; she will eventually need to ask someone for help. Erufib-kun, please do not shake that," he asks, taking the test tube from her hands gently.

"What is that?" she asks him, trying to get his attention off her again. It works. He picks up the tube and examines it.

"Oh, it's an _adiantum pedatum_, it's native to..."

The three of them continue talking, and keep messing with Kurama's plants, trying to figure out the difference between healing one of them and healing a person, and having dumb conversations as to why she and Kurama pretty much do the same thing just in different ways (Or so says Kaito), and one about how Kaito and Kurama are equally matched in wit, but then Kurama points out that Kaito got his ass kicked at his own game, and that one ends quickly. Of course, Kurama shows Me'ran the face he made at Kaito, and she can't not laugh, either. To make Kaito feel better, though, both of them point out that Kurama is well over a thousand years old, and he shouldn't worry about not having beaten that much experience.

Then Kaito tries to prove he's smarter than Me'ran, and tries to quiz her on anatomy. He fails to remember where the spleen is, and then what happens if it continues working to create blood after the fifth month of gestation, and she wins. Bitch. (She wouldn't have known that if she hadn't looked it up out of curiosity the other night, after failing to remember what the spleen did at all.)

But then things decide to go back to real normalcy. One of the few demons she recognizes, Asano, jumps through the open window of the lab, and runs to her and bows at her feet.

"My Lady Healer!" he says. "Please, we need your help!"


	44. Real Normalcy

_Real Normalcy_

Me'ran looks around to see if anyone normal's in the room. No. Kaito's standing, frozen, probably for shock, and Kurama's shut and locked the doors. So she picks Asano up by the arm.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she cries.

"I, we, I... Your assistance is most desired..." he stammers, bowing again as best he can with his arm in her hand.

She looks around again. Kurama gestures that it's alright, and she breathes slowly in an attempt to relax herself, then decides to go ahead and take charge. Something's got Asano panicked, first and foremost. Since he's the one with information, he is not the one that needs to be panicking. So she reaches over and puts her thumb on his temple and forces the dopamine secretion in his brain to rise enough to make him happy and calm him down.

Asano, as is characteristic with the increased dopamine levels, looks slightly dazed and sort of smiles a second, before he gets whatever it was in his head that was freaking him out back and he shakes his head and looks around. "What? Oh!"

"Asano," Me'ran growls firmly, getting his attention and bringing him back to earth. She overdid it. Dammit.

"Yes, ma'am!" he says, snapping to attention. "I'm sorry, I ju--"

"What do you need help with?" she interrupts, putting her hand on his shoulder and making him look into her eyes.

"Humans, demon slavers, they're... We're being enslaved, tortured..."

"Alright. Can you show me where this is?"

"Yes--but--Hiei-sama, he... he's..."

Me'ran finds out the fun way what Asano's stuttering about. Hiei pulls himself in through the window, and he leans on his knees, heaving for breath, and he starts to fall, but she runs to catch him, and upon shifting his weight over her, she sees that his chest has bullet holes in it. Exit wounds, and then on his back are the smaller ones, the entry wounds. She holds him up and goes through her little procedure. Check breathing, pupils, reflexes (Which is a simple touch to the throat, in Hiei's case, because his reaction is a finger-breaking grip on the hand that attempts this). Everything's good there, but he still seems perfectly out of shape. (Might be the bullet holes.)

"Hiei?" she asks, trying to get a better response. No answer. "Hiei!" she barks, now. Quite suddenly, she realizes that the procedure was habit, and now she's lost what she was supposed to do, and she's beginning to panic. "Come on, you son of a bitch, if you die on me, I'll kill you!"

His red eyes snap open and he rocks against her heavily. "Call me a son... ofabitch... again... 'll make sure... you can't... talk... ever again..."

And with this, Me'ran's nerves come back and she laughs quietly. "Good, good, not comatose, still conscious," she hums, pleased. "Asano, how fast are you?"

"Fast enough..."

"Can you carry him?"

"Yes, Milady."

"Good. Take him."

Kurama follows Me'ran closely when she hops out of the third story window and lands clumsily on the ground, and then starts for her apartment.

Once home, she takes Hiei from Asano and puts him in the empty bathtub. Kurama grabs her medical kit for her and takes Asano to the kitchen. Me'ran pulls her jacket off, and when Kurama gets back to the bathroom, she asks him to do the same. He gives her an odd look, but then she points out, he won't want blood all over it, so he does so.

"I'm no doctor," Kurama warns.

"I don't need you to be, that's my job--just help out when I tell you to."

Me'ran kneels over Hiei and puts a cut in the flesh in his abdomen. He seizes her wrist weakly, but it's reflex, or, less likely, he's awake and too weak to do anything. She reaches into his abdomen and goes around his diaphragm and starts digging around his flesh.

There are six bullets left inside. There were twenty-four bullet holes in the back, and there were eighteen in the front. She can't follow trajectory, but she can only hope that none of them got into his bloodstream.

A few minutes pass. So far so good. She's gotten four of them out, but she can't find the other two.

This changes when his breath starts bubbling and pink foam starts coming out of his mouth, and he starts to cough. Shit.

"What's--" Kurama begins to ask, but she interrupts it.

"Got into his bloodstream and lung."

Me'ran reaches to his lung and puts her hand into it on accident. It's a lot like reaching into a glass of chocolate milk that's had bubbles blown into it.

He makes a gasping, choking noise, but then she grabs the bullets and heals his lungs, then pulls her arm out. He sits up and coughs, and the pink foam continues coming out of his mouth for a second, until he finally settles and lays back, officially unconscious. She sews the hole she put in his abdomen up, and then does so with the remaining holes over his chest and back.

"Is he alive?" Asano asks nervously from the doorway.

"He is," Me'ran confirms as she puts the needle in the trash can, then stands up and washes her hands. The blood stains her cuticles, she notices with an irritated look. "I don't know if he'll stay that way. I hate to leave him, but Asano needs help, and there's shit I can do, now."

"Are you sure?" Kurama asks as he pulls his jacket back on.

"I'm needed elsewhere, ain't I?" Me'ran grunts. "He's got water, he's got full use of his arms and legs, there's no more internal damage, and all he needs is time to recover. What I'm worried about is the fact that whoever we're going to go see has a gun, and can aim well enough to hit Hiei. Asano! We're leaving!"

The womanling, ignoring that she reeks of blood, gets up and grabs her coat, leaving her magenta school jacket off, and she fixes her hair and puts her bucket hat on, lowering it. She's not immediately recognizable, now, at least.

"I'm going," Kurama tells her. It's too straightforward for it to be questioned, and she doesn't disagree.

"Are we ready?" Asano asks Me'ran, twitching nervously by the door.

"Yeah, let's go."

* * *

Asano leads Me'ran and Kurama through town, until she gets to a bigger part of town. It's a really big building, but something about it seems set apart, almost like it's got a bad aura.

"I'm not going in," Asano says quietly. "There are two sets of elevators. One of them is right at the front, and the other is down the hall to the right, and looks like a normal door. More security has probably been put in since Hiei and me got out, so be careful. The elevator has a panel in it that you'll have to open with a key, but you two can do something about that. You press the lowest floor button. There are also stairs, but that's how Hiei got in, and I would advise against that."

"Alright."

Kurama follows her inside.

"Why are you following me?" she whispers as they move through the lobby.

"You might need help. And I think it's more convincing. Once I let out my youki, I can feign being a servant," Kurama answers. "No offense, but I am a degree more intelligent than you, and I believe I'll be able to contribute to your well-being."

"You look like I could kill you. I probably could kill you, for that matter," she mutters back.

"I know."

"Why would I have a servant weak enough for me to kill?" she hisses a little more loudly as they move away from the main doors.

"They know the powers of demons. And I am strong," he replies coldly. To emphasize his statement, he releases a wave of his youki, inspiring a reluctant shudder in Me'ran.

"Quit!" she snaps irritably. "If I wanted chills, I'd ask someone to walk over my grave."

"Sorry," he says softly, taming the colorless wave. She finds a strange door on the right, and she looks in. It's a really big room, but it's completely empty, with lights lining the ceiling, and the floor is set apart from the rest of the building. It has the same kind of feel that elevators have. The only thing in here is a little square in the wall with a keyhole in it.

"Can you do anything about that?" Kurama asks her politely, beginning to reach into his hair.

"Yeah, hang on," Me'ran says softly. It's just like a shield, she decides. She holds out her palm and creates a little plane of reiki, then pushes it into the keyhole and makes it expand as much as she can. This jams the lock, and she twists once, hard, and rips it free. "Okay," she says then, standing and looking proud.

Kurama presses the lowest button and Me'ran smiles a little, the proud grin fading to a nervous smile.

"Alright. So. Any plans?" she asks her red-headed classmate uneasily.

"Not particularly. You rushed us into this," Kurama sighs. "Why didn't you think of this before we got here?"

"I was asked for help," she answers dumbly, looking mildly offended.

"Mm," he says. He's smiling. "That's very admirable, I suppose, but it is still foolish. I wish you had thought things through better."

"Yeah, me, too, now. But if I thought too long on it, I wouldn't do it," she eventually admits.

He's quiet for a while, but Me'ran feels his eyes on her before he mentions idly, "That outfit makes you look smaller than usual."

"The coat's too big," she explains conversationally, as if totally forgetting where they are, where they're going, and what's so unusual about all this. The elevator is moving down smoothly, but she's not sure how far down they've gone. They have, according to the buttons, twelve floors to go.

"You keep your presence, despite," Kurama continues, apparently bored or uneasy.

"What?" she asks. "Aren't you supposed to be thinking of a plan?" she adds.

He pauses, then shrugs. "This is your plan, Me'ran-san, not mine. I will be the second man, and I will not be the voice in your ear. But anyway, to explain the comment about presence---You notice that Hiei, no matter how much taller his opponent is, never seems short unless you're looking for how short he is?"

"Yeah," she agrees slowly. She hadn't noticed this, but mainly because he's never seemed that dwarfed, which kind of proves Kurama's point.

"His presence is much larger than he is. He is short, but he is not a small person."

"Ah."

The elevator slows to a stop, but Kurama shakes his head, gesturing that it isn't done on the way down. The doors open, and a man steps inside. He has a demonic woman with beautiful blue skin with him on a leash. Her head is down, and she's weeping. The man looks proud, which is pissing her off. Kurama catches her wrist, keeping her from doing anything stupid. She keeps quiet. He presses another button.

Guy doesn't seem to notice Me'ran's silent rage at all. She's almost tamed it when she spots the woman he's got on the leash and it returns. She wishes more than anything she could hurt that smug bastard, but Kurama is holding her wrist, and she doesn't want to cause a scene prematurely. Man, but it would feel good...

"Isn't she lovely?" the guy asks when he notices she's staring. She looks up at him, but she doesn't answer. He keeps talking. "I love demon women. Human women are beautiful, of course, but they're all completely wretched. It's only skin deep, and it fades quickly. Demon girls are beautiful, and they grow to be beautiful women, and they stay beautiful, inside and out. Even the vicious ones can be made into the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen. And the sex is sublime."

He seems annoyed at something. Probably the soft sobs. Me'ran promises to herself that if he lifts one hand to harm the demon woman, she's going to beat the shit out of the slave-holder, to hell with all plans and ideas.

But she can't just do nothing, so she decides to chance talking. Being silent would arouse suspicions, and she's got herself back under control. Plus, she wants to make this guy feel something besides that arrogance that is permeating the room. So she lowers her voice and figures out how she wants herself to sound, mocking and cold.

"I don't see how you find her beautiful at all. Broken spirits are never beautiful. There is no difference between a tamed demon and a human, even if one has horns and claws."

"Oh really?" the man says, trying to look under the hat and get a better look at the blue-eyed girl underneath. "And who, good fellow, might you be?"

"I am myself," she answers, smiling coldly at him. "I would ask you the same question, but if you answer, then you're a liar."

He doesn't answer. He can't. He's knocked speechless because he can't respond to that. It's a perfect blend between an intelligent comeback and a completely stupid comeback--it's real hard to figure out how to answer those. He tightens his hold on the chain. But then the doors open, and he quickly steps through and flees quickly. The doors close again.

"We must be close to the bottom. I think we went down a long time before we ever got to any floors down here," Me'ran mutters, looking around the room for any indication of how far they've gone down. There isn't any.

"That was very impressive acting, Erufib-sama," Kurama says with a smile. "I didn't know you were such a terrific actress. I'll have to nominate you for the school play."

"Don't," Me'ran gushes, blushing. "I don't deliver well under pressure. What's with the change in title?"

He smiles, then bows a little. "I was checking to see if it could roll off my tongue. My acting skills are a little less credible than yours. I've been able to play a trick or two, but that was very good. And, a matter of curiosity, why were you so desperate to hurt him? I could almost smell the will to harm him before you even thought of moving. It caught me off guard. You're normally a very gentle person. You behaved similarly with Kaito, but not nearly so violently."

"I don't like people like that. I don't like anyone that thinks they're above anyone else, and I hate people that think it's alright for them to hold someone else's leash."

"It's a rare occasion to see a saint's desire to maim. Please tame that reiki before you hurt someone, or get caught."

Ki? She looks and realizes that she's seeing red again, the glow of her aura and reiki, and she forces herself to relax, breathing slowly and willing it back down. It obeys. Kurama sighs a little and shakes his head, almost like he's annoyed. Me'ran smiles at Kurama nervously, but drops it as the elevator slows to a halt. The doors open, but no one is waiting on this end. So she and he together step off the elevator and step out into the hall. It's only fifteen feet long, but there are still twenty guys in thick armor lining the hall with Thompsons. She sees holes in the wall and blood from where someone has obviously been shot. A few of the men look like they've had recently treated injuries. Me'ran can tell that some of the blood is Hiei's, simply by smell. The wounded have sword cuts, too. Hiei's doing. He tried. Maybe she and Kurama can do it, though, she offers to herself for a little confidence.


	45. Taking Control

So, you remember when I told you that the language that Me'ran did not speak/was not currently in the mode of speaking would be in italics? And all the emphasized words, despite the difference in the way my brain (and very possibly yours) works, have been underlined, rather than in italics?

And then I told you that it was there, and that rule was null for a long time, until it would come back with a vengeance, ne?

I was not kidding. Prepare for confusing irritating language-switching and. Stuff.

Also. Um. Yeah. waves This is where the good stuff begins. Blood and gore and guns and stuff.

-R.F.

* * *

_Taking Control_Once they get to the end of the hallway, they pause at the door. None of the armored men have moved, but they make Me'ran really uneasy. Kurama moves next to the door and turns his back to the wall, so he can see everyone else, leaving Me'ran to choke on her throat all on her own before she builds up the balls to just take care of her shit. Or, well, Hiei's shit, really. 

"I'll wait out here," Kurama says when she gets right up to the door, "ma'am."

Me'ran nods, then knocks on the door. Pause. Wait until someone calls "come in". She takes special care to open the door wide and shut it firmly. Must look good for the boss-man. She's faking herself to be bold and sure of herself. It makes a person try harder to fool one, which makes it easier to see through. Oh, god, please don't shoot me.

In the room is a desk, two guards, and an obviously American man (obviously as in his eyes are gray and his hair's brownish blond and his skin's a kind of pinkish half-tan color, and his eyes are round) sitting behind the desk, fiddling with something in his hands. She leaves her hat on, and keeps her coat closed. He gestures at one of the seats.

_"I don't see why you damn Japanese insist on knocking,"_ he mutters in English before saying in lightly accented Japanese, "Good afternoon! Good to see, or not, new faces in my line of work! What can I help you with, today?"

_"Ameru. American English?"_ Me'ran asks, caught off guard by the familiar language. She does remember to keep her voice low and masculine and she summons the mocking tones back from the back of her head, but only for necessity. She's rather surprised at her own thick Japanese accent. They always said she had a thick American accent, but her English was still hacked into and had pieces of the more familiar language shoved into them.

He seems startled a bit before he smiles widely. _"Ah, a fellow American! How long it's been!"_ He stands up and leans over his desk and holds his hand out to shake hers. She makes a show of deliberately ignoring him and sits down in one of the chairs across from his desk. She doesn't need to look at him, yet. She's still studying the guard-people standing behind him. He's still talking, even though he's sitting back down. _"I haven't seen any of my countrymen since I got into this business. Please, sit down."_

He's trying to pretend he's got control of the room, and that she's not walking all over him. She's a little proud, now, and less worried. It's clear that one could never guess she was the one scared shitless. But either way--her assessment of the room has shown no weaknesses. No windows, just the two guards, no doors except the one behind her. His desk is plain and empty, except for the typical business books, a little tin-thing that probably once held peppermints that is now empty, an assortment of pens in one of those little tub things, and a nameplate that says "Leo James Davis" in Japanese lettering.

_"Well, what are you looking for? Something on the cheap side? Not that you look like you don't have much money, but many of our prizes are very expensive--even I can't afford some of them, and I have twice as much coming in as going out! I can offer you anything you want, a pet, a servant, a slave, some guaranteed sex on lonely nights... I saw your bodyguard out there, he's less than impressive--perhaps something that might be a little more threatening?"_ The whole time he's talking, Me'ran continues studying everything. His facial expressions remind her of a newscaster or a game show host. He's trying to be too friendly. She switches her gaze up to the men in the heavy... is that plastic? armor and starts studying it again. He suddenly notices that and his eyes narrow. _"Are you admiring or studying?"_ he demands, leaning forward on the desk, trying to assert himself.

_"Admiring,"_ Me'ran lies, letting a smile curl her lips up.

He does nothing to hide the smug look on his face, and he leans back in his chair and points at one of them absently (propping his elbow on the arm of the chair and rocking his hand back and pointing), looking remarkably homosexual and the American dream of "powerful" at once. _"Ah--I'm very proud. They're not demons. I don't trust demons to guard me when my job might anger them, and I don't have to torture them to do even the simplest tasks. Some of them would rather die than serve a lowly human. But my guards are humans, fully so. But what makes them special is their armor. I designed it myself. There are no weak spots. Even in their helmets, their eyes are protected without compromising any vision, and the only opening is very small, to allow some fresh air. It causes minor discomfort, but they cope eagerly after they find out how invincible they become. Even if they did have weak spots, all my guards are trained marksmen, and they can pump anyone that tries too hard to find them full of lead. Some little demon tried to get in here, earlier--he got away, but I imagine he's dying in some street, right now."_

Me'ran nods absently. The hat can only hide so much of the searching--She should have gotten sunglasses she snips at herself. But she's already spotted the spot under the chin made to allow movement of the jaw and neck--if she tried hard enough, she could put something through that and get the vein under their tongue. The blood pressure would drop, and she could heal it, and not a shot would be fired, but she'd have to move quickly. The risk is high, though...

_"Would you like to see our..."_ Leo begins. Then he pauses and sits back.

Both of the guards start to move, but no sooner than that, she does, too, and she launches over Leo's desk and grabs two pens. Bullets spray the wall behind her, but she's already jammed the pen into one's jaw, and she's moving for the second one.

Four shots hit her, going through her right chest and right arm, and one of them scratches her face, but none do enough damage to stop her. She puts him on the ground, and she turns to Leo, but he's standing with a long handgun pointed right at her forehead. He starts to pull the trigger, but she sees his hand tighten, and she picks up the knife on one of the guards' belts and points it at his neck. She's only just fast enough to do this. The men on the floor are choking on their own blood.

_"Let me heal them,"_ she requests quickly.

_"I have more,"_ he answers coldly.

_"I don't care. Let me heal them. Then you can shoot me."_

He laughs quietly. _"I can shoot you now."_

_"But you haven't, yet, because you know that if you shoot me, my arms are going to twitch, and the knife I have at your external carotid artery will draw lots of blood. Now let me heal them."_

He lets his gun down, and she moves away and pulls the pens out of their necks and heals the wounds shut. She starts to stand up, but then the clatterish sound of him picking up his gun freezes her dead in her tracks.

_"Dumbass."_

He pulls the trigger. Even though she can see and hear every move, she watches the muscles in his hand flex as he squeezes the trigger, there's nothing she can do about it. She's frozen to the spot. The gun tries to fire, but instead makes a "Cli-ggch" as it misfires. Her whole body fires off; every action she failed to take a few seconds ago is taken in this instant. She moves quickly and fiercely, putting him on his desk on his back, and she jumps onto the desk with her knee in his chest and the knife at his throat.

The door cracks, and she looks up to see Kurama, who is still in one piece, completely untouched, looking rather unfazed at this odd position. His eyebrow quirks a little, but then he slides into the room smoothly and closes the door behind him.

"I know this is a silly question, but are you alright? I think you're bleeding." His voice is smooth and soft, but Me'ran can tell he's slightly irked, though she's not sure if it's because she's wounded or if it's that she was so sloppy.

She stands up, but she keeps the knife at Leo's throat. "I'm fine. It hurts a little, though," she informs him sweetly. Then she looks down at the wounds, and the four bullets in her chest and shoulder (or bullet holes anyway, she's pretty sure only two of them are still inside) start to sting, suddenly. She puts her hand over them, not touching them and not healing them, yet. She begins to laugh as the sting becomes a burning pain over that whole quarter of her chest, and her whole body rocks over as she gives her little groaning laughs. "Actually... Aagh, it hurts a lot, now that I'm not distracted."

Leo stands up slowly. His gun is jammed, so he can't do anything with it. She hopes. So, to make sure, she reaches over and wrests it from him and sticks it in the back of her pants.

"Well, the guards outside are taken care of," Kurama informs his female companion, watching Leo carefully.

Leo does something, and Me'ran hits the ground before she realizes what she's doing. Nothing's touching her, but her head feels like it's going to explode. Kurama is against the wall with his hands over his ears, and his face is twisted in pain. She tries to cover her ears, but she might as well have been covering her ass for all the good it's done.

In an explosion of logic and reflex, Me'ran grabs Leo's throat and puts him on the floor.

"Make it stop!"

"I can't," he says with a smile, using the more familiar language to mock Me'ran and her red-haired companion. He switches to English to boast. _"I think this was probably the cleverest thing I've ever done. The only people affected are demons and young humans. The hairs that hear those frequencies fall out when you get older. Demons never lose that ability. Judging by how strongly you two are being affected, you're demons, no?"_

_"Tell us where the sound is coming from,"_ Kurama demands through his gritted teeth. Leo just grins. She flips his desk over and puts it on his head. He's still grinning.

_"You haven't got the guts; you couldn't even kill my guards."_

Me'ran pushes the desk down hard. "You wanna bet I ain't got the guts?! I'm in serious pain! I've got all kinds of guts!"

He cries out in pain when she pushes the desk even harder on his head. Then, _"Alright, alright, just, it's in the desk, smash it and you'll find this little box, and then you can smash it!"_

Me'ran kicks the desk against the wall, and it falls apart. The little box is silver and has holes all in it, they figure, because it's one of the many things that skitter across the floor, but it's the only thing that didn't shatter. Kurama lashes it into two with his whip. The sound stops, and every muscle that had been tightened relaxes.

Kurama's right ear is bleeding, the room is full of scattered papers and office supplies, there are bullet holes in the wall, and there are drops of blood lying around, here and there. Leo is lying on the floor, clutching his head from where she tried to smash it under the desk.

"You okay?" she asks Kurama.

"It'll grow back," he says quietly, examining the red substance leaking out of his ear.

Me'ran kicks Leo into the wall angrily. "Mother fucker," she adds angrily.

_"I don't care how many of you beasts are arrogant, there is no match for a human,"_ he declares arrogantly, smiling smugly.

Me'ran grabs his tie and drags him forward and leads him out of the room. All twenty of the guards are lying in the floor, bound together by huge vines.

"Your doing?" she asks Kurama as she gestures the guards. He nods, trying to hide the proud look.

"It wasn't easy to do until after I saw that the undersides of their jaws were uncovered. It suggested a slight opening at the neck. Though, I was rather surprised when none of them moved to shoot me after the shots were fired in the office."

She shoves Leo towards the elevator and corners him with her foot braced against his chest, holding him to the wall. "Which floor have you got the demons caged on?" she asks him sharply, leaning down to look him in the face.

_"Fourth from the top,"_ he answers quickly, looking her in the eye.

She puts him on the ground, and she puts her foot on his neck. "Alright, say it again, and this time, don't lie."

_"I'm not lying!"_ he cries, still looking her in the eye. His muscles are taut, his jaw is tight and warring with his mouth, and his pupils are dilating.

_"I heard that freaking sound in there, you think I can't hear those tones in your voice?!"_ Me'ran bellows. She actually didn't hear his voice arguing the truth, or betraying his motives, but she knows he was lying by the way he looked into her eyes and the way he was acting in general.

He smiles up at her pathetically, giving in. _"Am I that bad?"_

"_Yes."_

"_Next floor up."_

She grabs him by the hair and hauls him to his feet, then pushes him into the elevator and drags all the guards with her, too.


	46. They're FREEEEEEEEEEEE!

So, I was watching FMA when I was revising this chapter. You can kinda tell.

Anyone gets confused, tell me, I'll explain. Thank you for reading, as always.

-R.F.

* * *

_They're FREEEE!_

"Alrighty, so," Me'ran says cheerfully, looking at the cages and the demons in them. Some are humanoid, some aren't. She takes a few steps in the room, and a few that are still defiant release a flair of their youki, but she tames them with a surge of her own reiki and a lot of them go right back to meek.

"_Where are the keys?"_ she asks the jerk without looking at him. (Kurama's holding him, right now. They used his tie to tie his hands behind his back, and Kurama's had him by the hair.) She's busy looking around the room and trying not to weep. The empathetic pain all around the room is enough to break one down, but she steps back and starts figuring up how much she can afford to heal without expending too much reiki.

"_What keys?" _Leo asks, looking at her with big, mock-innocent eyes.

"_The __keys__."_ Me'ran insists angrily, turning to look at him now. The fire in her eyes must startle him or something, because he tries to moves away from Kurama, wincing when Kurama tightens his hold on the human's hair.

"_They're in my lapel pocket."_ He isn't lying. Instead, the look fades back to smug, almost.

Kurama reaches into Leo's pocket, then makes a soft pained sound and draws his hand back. His fingers look burned. He scowls, then starts to nurse on his fingers, and looks at Me'ran and gestures with a small nod of his head. She reaches into the pocket and pulls them out herself. She guesses the seal on them is what kept Kurama from taking them.

For some reason, Leo looks considerably more distressed than a second ago. _"You're __human__?!"_ he shrieks, evidently horrified.

"_Yeah,"_ Me'ran answers gleefully, grinning. _"Demon seals don't work on me."_

She tears off the seal and goes to the other end of the room. There's a second door here, leading to stairs. Useful note. But she goes to a cage and she looks at the keys, and she realizes there's a sticker over the lock, a little round yellow one, much like the kind that teachers use constantly as little marker stickers. Looking at the keys, she sees even more of the brightly colored stickers, and she kicks something on the floor at Leo.

"_What are you, FOUR?! I haven't seen these stickers since how good I had been that day was marked by popsicle sticks!"_ The shouting makes Me'ran think of anime, when their heads get all big, but what can ya do?

His answer does little to rid herself of the image. _"Well, I have trouble remembering, and there wasn't a point in hiding it!" _he shouts. "_The only people who could take the damn things weren't out to ruin my business."_

Despite the humor of the situation, the quiet rage that has been bubbling since she stepped foot in this room takes over. Kurama wisely releases Leo's tie, and allows her to kick him very firmly in the jaw. He stumbles and falls, and she puts your foot into his balls before offering him a very loud, very angry threat. _"IF YOU EVER CALL THIS A BUSINESS AGAIN, I'LL PUT YOU IN THAT CAGE WITH THE BIGGEST MOTHER FUCKERS HERE!"_

Several demons cheer, and Me'ran grins to herself and goes back to freeing them. The ones with the stickers over the keyhole are the ones with the stickers on top of the key, and they have to match color... and... yeah...

It takes a while, but she eventually gets all of them out. It takes a bit out of her, too, since she has to heal a few, and she doesn't have her medical kits. A few of them tried to go for Leo, but not many. They just wanted to go home. Once enough psychics among them were freed, they created a portal to get to demon world, judging by the smell.

And after most of the room is cleared, Me'ran looks around and shrugs to Kurama, who shrugs back, but smiles. "You've been doing excellently for winging it. What would you suggest now, Erufib-san?"

"Don't call me 'san', asshead. We'll need to keep Leo, but we're putting the rest of the guards in cages. Leo will go into one after we get every other floor cleared," she decides aloud before giving Kurama a questioning look. "That sound good?"

"It does," he agrees. Me'ran searches Leo real quick, makes sure he doesn't have a second set of keys on him, then pushes him into one of the smaller cages (hardly allowing movement), then goes with Kurama to get the guards to lock them up.

* * *

The next few floors go without incident. Two were empty, three were full of still-completely-wild demons, and the last one was what looked like a bedroom suite with several female demons (and a few male) tied up. Then there's the lounge, sixth floor up, and full of people, human and demon alike. Me'ran decides that it's more depressing than the cage room, and even more enraging than the brothel floor. The demons in here are all broken, quiet and with their heads down. Even the gigantic tiger-demon has its head down. The whole room is evil. The men sitting in here are all makeshift bluebloods with cigars and wine. 

"Alright, everybody!" Me'ran declares loudly. Everyone jumps and looks at her. A couple start laughing and elbow each other, thinking that she scared them all as a joke.

"Someone's big on shock value."

The bastard from the elevator looks at her and narrows his eyes. She sees him look over her and his eyes focus on the bloody spot on her shoulder where the bullets went through. Then he speaks, arousing everyone else's suspicions. "You're that... you're a woman... you're the one from the elevator." And with that, he stands up, probably knowing her plot, and he reaches into his coat, probably for a gun. She reaches over and punches him in the face. He falls backwards and drops the woman's chain.

"Don't just stand there looking stupid! Go down to the eleventh floor--there's a portal waiting."

She looks stunned for another second, then flees. The other men weren't sure how to react, but a couple started to run for the stairs. The door is being held closed by Kurama, so there's no worry--She uses pressure points to knock them all limp, and she gets their keys and frees their once-were pets. Then she ties their hands behind their backs with their ties, and drags them down the stairs to the cages.

After the whole floor is clear, Me'ran and Kurama are going up the stairs, heading for the fifth floor. Leo's begun to plead, now that they've gotten this far up.

"_Let me go, I didn't really mean any harm, I was just in it for the money-"_

"Shut up."

They keep going, moving up the stairs rather than using the elevator (which the demons are using), pushing Leo forward, but something changes in the room, and she pauses. She keeps feeling something wrong, and after a little while, it starts to bother her and she looks behind her and down. The space between the stairs is too small to see down far, but she still swears that she saw something black sliding up the rail.

"Is something wrong?" Kurama asks, looking down, then around, then down again.

"I sense something bad, and I don't trust myself enough to not look backwards," Me'ran tells him, still staring into the slat. Kurama looks back at her and she looks back at him.

"Is it eyes?"

"No, it's-"

She turns around to start back up and to look up that way, but there's a clatter as guns are picked up and pointed at them. Seven fully automatic submachine guns are pointed at Me'ran and Kurama. She starts to step back, but something pokes her in the back, and she freezes.

Leo uses the surprise on them to get away from Kurama, and he moves behind Me'ran to take the gun in the back of her pants and to run behind the squad behind them. Neither Kurama nor Me'ran dare move, so neither makes a move to stop him.

"_I suppose I failed to tell you what else that button did,"_ Leo mocks. The sound of ripping fabric echoes through the stairs and then there's another series of clacking and clicking noises as he clears the gun's chamber.

_"Button? What button?"_ Me'ran asks before she can stop herself. She remembers no button, and it's not like they're going to get shot for a dumb question.

_The button in my office! That made that noise that deafened your demon friend there and had you on the floor whining in pain!" _roars Leo angrily. Again, Me'ran is reminded of the big-headed anime stuff. And, again, the reply to the shouting doesn't help.

_"Oh, yeah. What els--"_

_"Shut up! Not only does it freeze any demon or young human in their tracks, but it alerts my guards on the fourth floor. Sleep is a human weakness, but having enough humans prevents it from being a problem. You're lucky. Most days, I'd have them shoot you, but I have to start my collection again, and you are going to be my starting point. You shouldn't have let me see those neat tricks, else I wouldn't think twice about shooting you."_

Kurama tenses, and Me'ran almost feels the concern for her, but she's worried about him more than herself. She can take it, and they can't kill her... But... Shit!


	47. But We're Not

Hello. This one is very very bloody. 'cos. I have an affinity for blood and gore and I get to do a lot of that with Me'ran because she's really hard to kill. I haven't, really, until this one ((Oh, just wait, it gets better, towards the late-middle, early-end. ))

I'll tell you this, now, so that you won't be confused and have to skip to the end--When the characters in this story stutter, I try to be nice to the language-thing (like the switching back and forth, thing) and I have them stutter in the language they're speaking in, which means I put the sounds they're choking on, rather than the words. So, ((What's a good word for an example? Ah.)) If they were stuttering with "idiot" or "baka", it would be like, "b...ba... idiot..." You see?

-R.F.

* * *

_But We're Not._

The black-armored men lead Me'ran and Kurama by gunpoint up to a small room without a door for the elevator. There are a few chairs, here. They're wider than the typical recliner and taller than most wingchairs, so it may be assumed that they were made for larger demons, and all of them have chains or some other means of binding on them. The walls are covered in torture devices and binding tools and there's one case of what looks to be seals. A lot of the chains have had seals and wards woven into them.

One guard removes Me'ran's coat and hat and drops them onto the floor, while two more move two of the chairs so that the backs are together, and then they get a set of shackles and chain her wrists to Kurama's and their ankles, too, under the chairs.

Leo isn't here, anymore. He took off shortly after the guards had their orders. She figures he's slipping into his dom outfit. Or at least making himself more presentable than he was with the bloodied shirt and jacket, and awry tie and cuffs and collar.

His absence is made up for by the fourteen gunmen surrounding both she and Kurama.

"No offense," Me'ran says to Kurama after a little while, "and I mean this for tactical reasons, but I wish Hiei was here."

"The telepathy would be useful. Are you sure you're not wanting a final lover's goodbye?"

"We're not going to die in here. I have the highest risk, because of my defiant thing, but even so... I'd be wishing him a lot of pain if it was just that. I take it back, I'm glad it's you and not him. He'd kill himself with his pride." She sighs a little and slumps in her chair. None of the men are looking at her, she notices irritably. "Well, if one of us manages to die, I guess I ought to be nice and tell you. I know I picked Hiei and all, but you're not that bad when you quit worrying about me. Like. When you're distracted. I don't feel the staring; I don't feel the same overbearing thing you do."

"I apologize for that. It's confused me why you chose him, though. He's literally tried to kill you. Four times," Kurama states. The topic is really lame, right now, but both of them are scared, and they both know it, so they're trying to distract themselves with a mundane 'who do you like?' conversation.

"I think we're up to five, maybe six, actually. I hated him at first. Grew to like him. Plus, the whole badboy thing. I'm a sucker. It was a part of the choice that was hard to make. You're easily a more suitable mate than he is, but I'm young and I don't want to settle down, yet," Me'ran giggles. "I mean, you'd be an awesome husband and father, but I'm only... I'm still sixteen, right?"

"Your birthday is in a month and two days, Me'ran, so, yes, you are still sixteen. I wish you hadn't chosen him. He worries me, at times. I'm always afraid that he's one of your kind, or that he's going to become one and succeed in killing you, eventually."

"Nah, remember when he cut my neck? Plus, he had to have been fated to live," she answers, reaching back and patting his shoulder.

"You know his history?" Kurama asks, apparently surprised. His chains rattle, and she guesses he's trying to twist to look. She turns to look back at him, but the chain on their wrists is too short for them to see around the huge chairs.

"Yeah."

"He told you?"

"Yeah."

Kurama's voice gets weaker, but somehow curious. Almost like he's surprised to even be thinking it. "You must be one of the few people he's ever told. I think you're the only one, actually. He must really love you."

"_Then it blows to be him, because he's about to lose his lover,"_ Leo's voice booms from somewhere behind Me'ran, from the door (which is in front of Kurama). He circles around to face Me'ran and leans on the arm of the chair, brandishing a gun in one hand that he is very carelessly waving about, deliberately making sure she sees it, like it's supposed to scare her. _"I was surprised to hear American English out of anyone around here. I was even more surprised when I found out that you weren't a demon, especially after that sound hurt you. You must still be quite young, too. And you're a girl!"_

* * *

Kurama sees the door open and he braces himself instinctively. Leo says something in English, but his accent combined with how quickly he says it and the use of slang throws Kurama off whatever it is. It upsets Meruran, though--she tenses. He was talking to her, Kurama supposes--he doesn't even look at the demon and circles the back-to-back chairs to face her. Kurama's afraid. Not for her, because she's obviously tested his ability to kill her. He hopes. (He heard something like "You can shoot me, just let me heal them" earlier when he was waiting in the hallway for her.) But this time, he's worried for himself, for once. Or so he tries to tell himself, but he's too smart to believe himself. He's terrified for that human girl behind him. She's probably going to dive into this headfirst like always and not take any damage into consideration and not pay attention to the tiny detail that, sometimes, people like her cannot just get back up. Kurama was hoping she'd have learned that after Sho, but it seems to have only made her worse.

Kurama really, really, really wishes he could see them, or understand half their interaction. Despite the English lessons (almost fluency), some of the words are lost on him, and even though she's got a hint of a Japanese accent, Leo does not, and she's swiftly losing hers due to the sudden exposure to someone speaking her home language. He can, however, see the reflection in the helmet of one of the guards, but not well, and he can only see Leo, right now, and a three-quarter angle of the back of her head. It's good enough. Kurama watches as Leo leans toward the chained down girl. He reaches toward her, and Kurama hears him taunt her in a quiet voice, _"You've got blood right there."_ Kurama remains silent and watches intently, praying she won't do something stupid, and he's slightly disappointed (though not surprised) to hear her bark and snarl. No, of course she couldn't just let him touch her. Kaito was probably right about the company I keep, Kurama admits to himself. I could use less barbaric friends.

He laughs at her, and continues to mock her. Not a wise move... _"Amazing that such a wild beast could fake civilized qualities so well. You almost managed to pass yourself off as one of the nobles that compose my consumer base."_

She releases a feral growl. She almost sounds like a wolf. Kurama feels a slight motion in the chains, so he twists his hands and feet into the chains and pulls them a little tighter, holding her arms and legs back, and hopefully keeping her from tugging too hard on them and hurting him or her. She keeps pulling anyway, but she is taking Kurama into consideration, he's inclined to think, and since she's not tugging as much as just holding herself forward in a show of defiance. He feels that the chains have a strength that he's not used to feeling in common metals, but at the same time, a weakness. A strength was sacrificed for a different strength. They're Makai steel; they're made to bind ki, specifically youki.

_"Settle down,"_ Leo warns her, turning Kurama's attention back to the humans. _"Or you'll find out just what I can and will do to you."_

_"Bring it on!"_ she roars. Kurama shifts a little, almost squirming in his seat, and switches "screens" to watch both her and Leo. He can only see profile of each one at best, but he can still see them both. She's leaning up in her chair as far as the chains will allow her without pulling on them, and she's staring him hard in the face. Then Kurama sees one of the gunmen move. He points his gun at her, probably as a warning to see if she'll settle down. She doesn't back down. Instead, she repositions herself in the chair, allowing herself to look him dead in the eyes. His heart jumps into your throat and begins to hammer. What if he's--. Kurama recognizes the fear in his chest, and he struggles to conquer it, to keep himself from crying out and bringing attention to himself. Me'ran doesn't seem to suffer any of the fear Kurama's choking on. _"Come on, mother fucker; let's see what you can do! You can't kill me!"_ she adds, goading him. Please, Me'ran, be wise and stop!

Kurama half-hears the pieces of the gunman's heavy plastic gauntlet click together as he begins to pull the trigger. Kurama can't see this motion, but he hears it. She still doesn't back down, continues facing him. In his fear, Kurama almost begins to panic and say something, any plan of escape completely fleeing his mind to be replaced by terror, but then the gunman lowers the weapon at the last second, sending a bullet down, away from her head. An ear-splitting shriek pierces the air, and Kurama puts his palms to his already-wounded ears. He twists his legs a little in an attempt to keep her from jumping up and damaging anyone, too, but she falls back against the chair, making the chains rattle and swing wildly as she writhes, and he hears her cry out less shrilly--"_Not that leg_! Not that leg, not that leg!! Aaaa-AAAA-AAAGH!!! Dear fucking GOD, that hurts!"

"What happened?" Kurama asks her, now, loosening both of the chains he'd wrapped around his ankles. He already knows, of course. She was shot in the leg. But he's going to help her distract herself from the pain, something necessary for her to stop making that noise, which would be most desirable, at the moment.

"He shot me, jackass!" she shouts angrily at Kurama, little shrieks caught in her voice. Then she breathes again and relaxes. "He shot me," she says again, this time only speaking in a quiet, very wild voice. She's fighting her tears, but she hasn't gotten them under control. "Sorry. Gunshot wound. Right tibia, just a little below the head of the bone. I think it's wedged in there, and I think it might have thrown in a hairline fracture all the way down it. Don't pull your left leg anymore, or you'll break my right one."

And with that, she recovers almost completely. She's still breathing uneasily, but she's no longer screaming, and the only sounds of pain she's making are little whimpers.

Leo is unhappy with this, it seems. He approaches her again, but then the man whose helmet Kurama's studying moves his head, and he can't see them anymore. _"So, you know a little _(word that Kurama doesn't know)_, huh?" _Leo sneers. _"Then what is this bone here?"_

_"You're too far over to hit bone," _she tells him simply. Kurama twists in his chair, trying to find a helmet he can watch, but none are looking at either human, all that he could look at having turned their heads to the ceiling. He sits back against the chair, then, and listens intently.

_"So if I shoot now, what will happen?"_

_"Well. You can't kill me. So. _(series of words she mumbles incoherently)_, it'll hurt like a _(no idea)(again)_ quickly, bleed a little."_ With this, what he caught was enough to guess. Kurama's on the edge of screaming obscenities at her. You stupid human little girl, why can't you just stop?(1)

_"Is that all?"_ challenges Leo darkly, sinister tones entering his voice.

_"Yeah," _replies the stubborn Undying girl.

Kurama begins to wonder where he has the gun. His own heartbeat is reminding him of his terror, needlessly.

Then there's a single gunshot, and a slight tug on the shackles, and silence in the room. She's not screaming. Did he shoot her throat? Or her heart? Her head? Is she dead?

"Me'ran?!" Kurama calls, almost allowing the panic to take over his mind, but fighting it back. He can't help her if he can't think straight.

"I'm fine!" she answers. Her voice is back to the barely-controlled cry of pain, but she answered, and she's still alive and conscious, and that's good enough. He breathes again (he had been holding his breath) and nearly falls back in the chair to melt with relief. "It hurts, but I'm fine. Nothing that can kill me," she adds. Her voice is weak and shaking. He thinks she might be weeping, an unwanted reaction to pain.

_"How much do you think you'll survive?"_ challenges Leo angrily. Kurama can hear that he's displeased.

_"Anything you throw at me,"_ she answers cockily, still sounding like she's fighting off tears. He feels the chains shift just a little, and he guesses that she's up and facing him again, looking him right in the eye like she's always done when she's being defiant. _"You can't kill me. I won't die,"_ she adds passionately. _"And I won't give in."_

Kurama's heart jumps back into his throat. A challenge. He can see Leo's face in a helmet's reflection. It's frightening how evil a human can look--his face is twisted and angry, and Kurama can practically see the malicious intent all around.

_"Oh?" Leo_ answers in a light voice, but Kurama can hear the rage. He hears a click as Leo cocks his handgun. Kurama looks around for another helmet to watch this in, and he sees Leo put the gun to her head. He has to fight his panic, and he can only hope that she'll fight her own nature and back down. Please, Me'ran, back down! _"What if I pull the trigger now? Will you die, then?"_

_"Try it,"_ she answers. Kurama's suddenly unsure if he's more afraid or annoyed. He wants to hit her with something to get her to stop being so stupid, and he's so afraid that Leo's one of her kind and is about to kill her. He wants to say something, stop him, anything, but to do that... It's tactless. He can't do that, because it'll bring attention to him, and that's an unwise move because Leo can definitely kill Kurama, and she will be left alone with him, and that won't be good. Without Kurama to at least temper the headstrong brat, she will get herself badly hurt.

Kurama struggles to come up with something, but then the whole room goes quiet as Leo starts to squeeze the trigger. Someone's finally watching them, and from a perfect angle. He sees the grin on their captor's face, and the fear in Me'ran's. Her whole face has dropped, and her jaw is loose, and her eyes are closed in the calmest and most solemn way he's ever seen. And then he hears the clicking sound of a dud, and Kurama, once again, nearly melts with relief. A grin breaks out on Me'ran's face.

This is short-lived. Leo gets angry and hits her in the head with the butt of the gun, then throws it, and Kurama hears the sound of one of the Thompsons firing off. Kurama tries to count shots, but they're too fast and too close together. The only sounds he can hear over the gunshots are Me'ran's shrieks of pain. He tries to see her out of any of the helmets, but none are looking at her. In fact, many have turned their heads completely away, taking his view away entirely. After eleven seconds of ceaseless fire, this gun jams, too. The men turn their heads back, offering him a view of the scene.

Leo's still holding the jammed Thompson, looking maniacal and breathing heavily with a sadistic smile on his face. Me'ran was leaned against the back of her chair, but she's moving, now. Her rump is on the edge of her seat, and she sits up perfectly straight, then falls forward, jerking the chains behind Kurama's back. Her arms are drawn back and pulling on the chains with her weight. There's a series of quiet splatting noises as blood falls out of her and onto the floor. She looks much like a puppet on the edge of a mantle. Three guns in an hour, he can't kill her; if he could, she'd have died with that bullet in her head, but... that's blood hitting the floor... And she hasn't moved... Kurama feels nothing from the chains, no signs of life or even vibrations of her pulse travelling down the chains. He's scared for her, and he starts to pull the chain to sit her back so she might be able to keep from bleeding much more, but he stops, afraid to hurt her...

A pregnant silence haunts the room, until, finally, loud, staggering, "Aaaagggghhh..." echoes through the room. Kurama, Leo, and every armored man in the room jumps in surprise or fear, all have been startled by the sudden cry. Several of the armored men around the room break form to try to get a better look, and Kurama writhes in his chair to see, but it doesn't do any good. His heart thrums in his throat from where he nearly lost it through his mouth. Kurama almost coughs when he starts breathing again, releasing the unconsciously held breath. "Aaagh..." she adds before she genuinely speaks, burbling for the blood in her mouth... "Minamino-kun? Are you alright?"

"Are you alright?"?! Is that what she has to say!? "Are you alright?"

Kurama chokes on his tongue for a minute, struggling to come up with something to say to that, to swear at her properly, to express any of the feelings that he's drowning in and struggling to control, right now, but he's so flabbergasted that he can't get a word to even visit his mouth. She just had (the firing rate of the typical submachine gun is ten to twelve bullets a second...) at least one hundred and ten bullets pounded into her and she wants to know if he is alright?

"I'm serious, Kurama, if one of these got through me and the chair and got you, I'm gonna break myself free--" she continues, apparently recovering because of the fear for his health.

"I can't believe..." Kurama whispers. He can't believe she's alive, she was just pummeled with a hundred inch-long slugs of lead, and she's worried about him. About him. Kurama looks back at Leo, sitting up in the chair and looking at him evenly over the top of the chairs. _"You realize, of course, at this point, you have no choice but to let us go."_

_"Why is that?"_ he demands, crossing the room to stand in front of the red-head, allowing him to sit down in his chair and let Me'ran recover. _"The only power you have is a half-dead human bitch--nothing in here can be broken by demon energy," _Leo adds, sounding like he's trying to convince himself more than Kurama.

Me'ran speaks for him. "M'not half _dead_!" she burbles loudly. Kurama's sure her mind has suffered now--she's mixing her languages. They'll be fortunate if there's no brain damage. "Half dead is _consti... constitute_... Something dammit. _Fuck it_. I ain't _out cold_, yet, dammit, so I _ain't_ half-dead!"

Leo does as Kurama expects and whirls back to her. He's trembling with fear and rage. _"You can't survive that!"_ he barks fearfully. _"Even if I missed your heart and everything else--highly unlikely with that many bullets in your chest--you'll bleed out in a little while!"_

_"Something you seem to be failing to understand,"_ Kurama begins calmly, _"is that she is not lying, exaggerating, or being cocky when she tells you she cannot be killed. She cannot be killed by normal means or normal people. It's a rare condition. I was so frightened because I was not sure whether or not you suffered it. But now I know, sir, that you do not."_

Leo looks at her, then at Kurama, then at her again, and he moves for Kurama. He's smiling half maniacally, and the demon can see that he's gotten his own confidence and calm back.

_"You poor fool. You're so afraid that you're entering grief already. You're in denial,"_ he teases coldly.

Kurama decides that she's alright, now. There's not any bubbly breathing--she's not even had her throat shot. The dripping and spatter of blood is limited to little sounds here and there, and when she spits. Given enough time to recover, she could break them free. He hates to rely on this, but it's all he has at the moment. He needs to brace himself so she can break the chains, and start distracting Leo at the same time.

_"I'm not in denial,"_ Kurama tells him. _"I am stating a fact. She is neither dead nor dying, and any wound or pain you attempt to inflict will not put her in either state. They are a rare breed, but they do exist. There is a..."_ And he has to do a quick calculation in his head--"_A zero point zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, three one five sixtillionths of a chance of becoming one as a human. They are called Undying, in Demon World. They're rarer there. Human counterparts are called Undestructible, due to the misfortunate fact that humans can die of old age. She, and people like her, cannot die by normal means. The only way to kill one is to be Undestructible yourself. The other two ways she can die are suicide and old age."_ Kurama swears to himself--he hates speaking in English. He's sure he messed up with his pronunciation halfway through that, and he's even more sure that he got at least one of those words wrong. He hates speaking English, but it's important on a psychological level to attack Leo in his own language--brings it more directly to home, no matter the accent.

_"That's very interesting. How is it that one like her can survive a hundred gunshot wounds all over her body?"_ he snaps, gesturing at her. _"I know well that I should have gotten her lungs and heart, and even if I didn't, she should bleed out shortly."_

_"From what I can tell, sheer luck contributes largely to her survival,"_ Kurama admits lightly. _"The guns have all failed to fire fatal shots. Three in an hour is impossible, isn't it? Perhaps the chest bones caught the bullets before they entered her l-l-lungs? And the wounds to what should be her heart? Her heart, if I had to guess, moved. I've heard of cases like that before." _Dammit, again with the shoddy English. There were words he knew existed, but he had forgotten them and he wanted to use them.

"It's already happened, Minamino-kun," she tells him. He hears that she's smiling. "Only once, but my heart moved. And it's _sextillionths_, not _sixtillionths_, but good job getting that close. And the chest bones are either ribs or the sternum."

_"See? And as for bleeding to death, I don't think they can do that, either. Me'ran never bleeds much,"_ Kurama continues. _"In fact, she's had her throat cut two--"_

"Three!" she volunteers cheerfully before letting out a quiet whimper and coughing. "Dammit," she adds.

"When was the third? I knew of the one Hiei stitched shut, and the one Hiei inflicted himself..." Kurama wouldn't have switched back to Japanese, but it will actually hold more of an effect than speaking in English to her, taking her to an element where she's more comfortable, and taking him from his own ground. Kurama's also babbling, buying more time while Leo stands, unsure of what to do. He's hoping that she'll eventually figure out what he's doing and starts buying her time, too--he needs to brace himself so she can break them both free, and with Leo watching, he can't do this.

"You remember when Sazuna took me? When I disappeared two weeks ago? I was playing doctor for her, and there was this one guy that was in a frenzy after having one of his arms taken off, and he slit the jugular with his claws before I could belt his other arms down."

"Forgive me, then." Language switch. _"She's had her throat cut three times and she's never lost consciousness to blood loss. She's not even bleeding now, is she? Shouldn't she have bled completely out?"_

Leo takes another gun from another one of the men and points it at Kurama. He's not sure what to do now, afraid to speak. He'll shoot him, too, more easily and with less hesitation than he shot Me'ran, because he's already shot someone else, and he can kill Kurama. _"These people are that rare, so you're not one of these people, are you? I can kill you, can't I?"_

Me'ran distracts him, now, with a loud barking sound before she begins shouting in very unclear English. Kurama hardly understands what she says, because of an accent he's unfamiliar with, not to mention that she's got blood in her mouth. "Oi!" is the bark. _Hey, now, fuggin' ugly! We ain't done yet. You gotta finish with me, firs'!" _(Kurama actually misses anything past "Hey, now" and "we" and "You".)

_"You're still being self-destructive?"_ Leo demands. _"I was hoping you'd have learned after I put over a hundred bullets under your skin, that pain is best avoided."_ He turns back to her. His face is twisted, and he turns his gun to her before he even moves toward her. Kurama's getting more and more worried for her--if she's taken to unconsciousness, his whole plan is completely blown. Kurama takes the time he has to smash the test tube in his pocket against the arm of the chair and break it, and then he calls on the vine to wrap around his arms and legs and the arms and legs of the chair, and the shackles themselves.

Leo's just about to pull the trigger when he gets his attention again. _"May I suggest you calm down?"_ Kurama offers kindly. Leo turns back to Kurama, looking even angrier than he did at Me'ran. _"If you shoot her again, I'll let her know that she is welcome to show you how far from death she is,"_ Kurama adds in warning.

Leo thrashes a little, stomping his feet and throwing his arms up and down, almost like a baby bird trying to take flight, or an upset two-year-old. He's frustrated with her continuing life and Kurama's continuing calm. _"Neither of you can even move!"_ he cries accusingly. _"If you move, you'll break her, and if she moves, she'll break you!"_

_"Most times, you'd be right. In fact, you were right, up until a few seconds ago,"_ Kurama contradicts, finally deciding to make his move. _"The chains have been enforced magically, but to do that, you had to sacrifice something in the metal that makes it stronger. It would disable a demon entirely, but a stronger human could break them with brute force, or the help of their own spiritual energy. You know, of course, that she's been avoiding pulling too hard for my sake. What you do not know is that I've braced myself well enough that she no longer has to worry about me, and she can go ahead when I give her the signal."_

_"She can't,"_ he answers, flustered, pointing at her. _"If you could see her, you'd know this. She's half mush in that chair. If she gets up, her whole body will fall apart, and if she tries to pull free, she'll break herself! I'll have you both shot!"_

Kurama takes half a second to consider this. He'd almost forgotten the men around them. They move, of course, but none have made a move yet. They can still shoot him--they're waiting on orders. The rose seed in Kurama's hair blooms before he even wills it to, and he wills it to grow around his hair. If they try, he'll slice the guns into pieces.

"Me'ran, do it," Kurama commands. "Break the shackles."

She doesn't question him, and she begins to pull. The shackles cut Kurama's skin, but the vines have twisted around them, the chair, and his arms, so that's the only damage they do.

"Guards, shoot them!"

He doesn't want to, for risk of hitting Me'ran, but he has to--he swings his head around twice, feeling a slight resistance against the whip as it catches and slices through all the remaining guns, he hopes. Several go for their knives, and he tries to hit them, but they're more easily handled and smaller than the typical gun, and he fails to hit all of them, mainly due to the fact that his hair is much less precise. Three are still heading for him.

One of his hands has been freed. Kurama takes hold of the whip and swings it once to take the knives out of their hands. In his distraction, Kurama almost doesn't feel that Me'ran's freed his remaining arm and one leg. He also hears the sound of flesh-on-flesh, and then the last ankle chain is broken. She's slumped in her chair, being pummeled by the plastic-gauntleted men. She throws up a shield to knock them all back, and he takes her arm and leads her to a corner. He doesn't want to, but he puts her in front of him, turning her by her arm to face away from him and forming a safe zone in the corner. The red wall forms a triangular space, keeping the other humans completely out of the space.

"Hold that shield," Kurama tells her firmly. She leans back against him, and he supports her a little with one arm, but he uses the other to send vines into the ceiling. He seeks out the position of each of the last guards and picks all of them up by their throats. Then he looks up at Me'ran. Her back is bloody and has large holes all in it, including one in the center of her back (where her stomach should have been) that looks like it was created by several bullets.

While they're still choking, Me'ran drops the shield and goes to Leo, who is trying to unlock the door. She takes his shoulder, turns him around, and knocks him out cold with a firm punch to the temple. And then she falls down on top of him, and rolls onto her back against the wall.

Kurama gets to look at her, now.

And he regrets taking the opportunity.

What of her shirt isn't in tatters is blood-soaked. He can see where several of the bullets ate through her flesh, leaving massive holes, and where Leo was being honest when he said she was half mush. Her wounded chest is heaving up and down with her labored breathing, and he can see how her heartbeat is jarring her whole body. Her sternum has a series of holes in it, and one spot between her breasts is nothing but one enormous gaping wound, to match the wound in her back. Kurama wonders how many bullets are still inside her, but she seems to pay it no heed. There are seven holes in one arm, four in the other, six in one leg, five in the other thigh and only one in the last shin. The one in her shin still has the bullet half-sticking out of it, and a splinter of bone is sticking through the flesh on either side of it. There's even one hole in her cheek that he guesses went in through her mouth, judging by how little damage she seems to be showing. Her whole body is bloody, except parts of her neck and face, and even they have spatter over them. Her chin and lower jaw are covered in the blood she couldn't spit. Her hair is sticking together, too, hanging in massive dark clumps around her head and in her face. She's bleeding, either again, or she never stopped in the first place.

"Me'ran!" Kurama gasps before he can stop himself. Her head falls to one side to look at him, and the bright icy blue, almost silver, twin stars burn into him. He can see the pain in her eyes and her face, how her mouth is drawn back in a wince, in what should have been a scream, and how her eyes are watering for the pain, and how pale she's gone, probably for lack of blood, and he chokes a second. "Are..." he begins to ask. Kurama stops, unsure if he wants to ask her if she's dying or what. Anything he can ask her is a very silly question. She isn't dying, but she's certainly not "alright".

"B... Bok... ku... I'm... dai... okay...(2)" she reports. Kurama'd be an idiot to believe this. He almost says something about it, but he stops with his mouth open as she begins to move again. She looks around blankly, then spits out a little more blood (it lands on her shirt and fades into the rest of it) and she takes the keys from Leo, then lets her should-have-been-broken arm fall onto the floor. She looks exhausted, suddenly, and her head falls back against the wall and her eyes close.

"Me'ran," Kurama says, shaking her shoulder gently, trying to keep her awake.

Her eyes shoot open and she seizes Kurama's wrist tightly and twists his arm the wrong way (It was a reflex to subdue him, but she obviously can no longer hold her own), before her arm falls into her lap and she stares up at him. The ice blue frightens him, but to see it is still a relief--his pounding heart settles just to see it, and he leans against the wall and closes his eyes, overwhelmed with the feeling, suddenly, knowing that she'll be okay, and he gets up.

He goes to pick up her coat and hat while she takes off the shackles still attached to her ankles and wrists. He looks at her chair while she's on that side of the room. There are dents where the bullets struck (The chair seems to have been made of a different metal from his chains), and all kinds of blood spatter all over the back, and a puddle of it in front of the chair and in the seat. He stares blankly, for a second, then looks back at her. She's looking exhausted, but alert and alive. Kurama can't imagine the pain she must be in, but she's not showing that, either. Something in her face looks less... here. There's a listless, distant look in her eyes, and her jaw is slack and her head is cocked to a side where she is not bothering to hold it up. She's what she usually calls "out of it". She gets the same way when she's just woken up from not-enough-rest or when she's in extreme pain or shock. Koenma said it was a common thing for Indestructibles to fade out of contact with reality after a brush with death. It's sort of a mock-death, or a way the body reaches for the state that it belongs in.

"B...b...b... K's'(3)... I... don't feel... well..." she reports. "I'm gonna... go sit in the elevator," she adds. "Take Leo down to the eleventh floor, lock him up in full irons, if you can, and... I'll wait for you in the elevator. And... Can we stick the keys under a plant on the top floor?"

"No," he answers bleakly. "We need to get you to a doctor."

"I'm not explaining this to a doctor. I'll take care of it when I get home," she answers. She, very slowly, puts her feet under her and uses the wall to slide up. It hurts him empathetically to watch her damaged limbs take the weight of their owner and he almost winces for her when her leg makes a creaking noise, probably threatening to snap. She gives a whimper of pain, but she persists, choking it off and making herself bleed more due to the stress in her chest. A little of it splatters on the floor, but she just keeps pushing until she's upright. There's a puddle of blood where she was sitting, and drag marks up the wall where she leaned.

"Me'ran," Kurama calls, trying to get her attention, but she ignores him, or can't hear him. If she weren't walking, he'd think she was dead. She walks along the wall, leaving bloody shoeprints, too. The bleeding is slowing, at least...

He sighs and follows after her, and grumbles under his breath. "All I can do is wonder if she's got any idea how infuriating she can be."

* * *

On the elevator, after Leo's been taken care of, there is silence. Kurama's already hidden the keys in a ceiling panel in here. Me'ran's slumped against the floor, breathing slowly and loudly. She's wrapped in her coat to help slow the bleeding and hide the blood already present, and she's got her hat on her head to hide what's in her hair and on her face. The smell of blood is so strong that it almost gags him. She remains "out of it" the whole time, staring blankly into space, making little noises of pain when she tries to move.

"Come, Me'ran," Kurama says softly as the elevator stops.

She struggles to get up, having to put her feet under her and slide up the wall again, but she does it. Then she slips in her own blood and falls against Kurama. He catches her elbows and her usually strong hands grip at his school jacket weakly, staining it with blood as she struggles to hold herself up. "I'm sorry," she whispers. The grip begins to slack, and he feels her starting to fall the rest of the way down, but he holds her up. It's not just her hands that are weak--it's her whole body. One of her legs is under her, but the other, the one that slipped, is hanging uselessly, propped on the floor to one side.

"Me'ran!" Kurama pleads. "Please, keep trying to stand, I can't... I can't carry you, yet, you'll at least have to stand properly to allow me to pick you up, or sit back down, and I do mean sit, because if I let you fall, we risk more injury, and you can't take anymore damage. Do you really want to go home in my arms? If Hiei's awake, he will bring about intense bodily harm if he sees you in such poor condition when I am untouched."

"He's said the same thing," she giggles. "Don't worry, I can stand up, but I'm really tired," she adds, putting her feet under her slowly and standing up again, but agonizingly slowly. Kurama continues to support her by her arms. She feels so fragile in his grip, softer than he's known her to be the few times he's gotten to hold her in any way, and weak. He's almost afraid that she's going to break in his hands.

As he supports her weight through the lobby, three men in business suits and a female receptionist notice, and the woman leans forward.

"Sir? Sir? What--"

He sighs quietly and starts to reach into his hair for one of his plants, but Me'ran stands up and starts away from him. He catches the back of her coat, afraid she's going to fall, but she shakes her bleeding head and looks at his eyes from under the brim of the black bucket hat. "Relax. Just give me a second, Kurama," she says reassuringly, switching names again, probably to spare them remembering it. She leans on the desk and beckons the woman closer to her until she reaches out and pinches her neck and knocks her out. The three men run toward her, probably not knowing what happened, and she knocks each one out in turn.

"Okay. Now," Me'ran says, collapsing easily back onto your shoulder, leaving you support the weight again. He leads her outside, then to the alleyway Asano should be waiting in.

"Asano?" she calls quietly into the shade.

"Lady Healer!" he answers, standing up and pulling the arm she doesn't have over Kurama's shoulder and taking her weight off him. Kurama moves out from under her as Asano continues pulling. Kurama pauses to remove his school jacket and twists so that he can check and see if the white shirt he wears under it is stained with her blood. It's not. He folds the jacket over his arm.

"I'm okay," she lies, leaning over Asano's back. "You can put me down."

"Don't," Kurama answers hurriedly. "I'm not sure how much more stress her body can take in that condition. I want to take her to a hospital, but we're going to give her the chance to recover before that."

"I'm fine," she lies again.

"You're lying. You're not a burden, my lady--it is an honor to be allowed to help you," Asano says quickly as he makes her stand up for long enough for him to situate himself under her and pick her up onto his back. Her head falls limply over his shoulder and Kurama adjusts the coat and collar and hat so no one can see her or her wounds.

"Keep her conscious," Kurama whispers to Asano, moving ahead of him.

* * *

(1)Sorry about the weird "I have no ideas" in parentheses back there, but Kurama didn't know the word, and I didn't know what else to do because my creativity was a little distracted by the lovely scarlet color that blood is before it dries.

(2) She was trying to say "boku daijou", and she couldn't spit it out. "Boku" means "I" (male), "daijou" means "okay".

(3) The "B...b...b" and "k's'" are, respectively, the beginning of "boku" and a very abbreviated "kuso" which is usually missing one of those sounds anyway, or has another added to it. (she usually says it k'so.) ;


	48. Home Doctoring

_Home Doctoring_

Me'ran rides on Asano's back the whole way back to the complex before she even bothers coming to. Her eyes open to see Kurama staring hard at her face, under the hat. "You're awake again. That's good. Are you still out of it?"

"Out of it? I was never out of it," she answers, blinking dumbly. She's lying, she knows full well she was out of it, earlier, but she was so close to real consciousness that she didn't count it as "out of it".

Kurama seems to know this. He smiles a little and adjusts the hat on her head. "You were. You're remarkably clear-minded when you're 'out of it', but you were. It's a reaction to an Undying's near-death, according to Koenma."

Me'ran's suddenly annoyed with Koenma for not telling her these things. Why the hell does he tell everyone else, but not me? "You mean that thing when I'm s'posed to die and I don't and I still can't move?"

"Exactly," he says. "You're even making faces again. Why are you annoyed? Did I do something?"

"No, no, I was wondering why Koenma tells you this shit and not me," she reassures him with a smile. He pats her back through the coat.

"Koenma told me this because he thought that one watching you would need to know whether or not you're dying. You wouldn't need to know the difference from the outside, because, logically, you're on the inside and can watch it. I believe you've already experienced, your body ceases to move while you're truly dying, as when Sho stabbed you, because it thinks you're already dead. Near-death states induced by typical people are merely a hindrance and slow you down, even though you're still alert and moving."

Me'ran nods, then yawns and spits blood up on accident onto Asano's back. She rubs it off with her coat sleeve. "Sorry, 'Sano. I guess I'm back in it. Whatever it is."

"You need medical attention," Kurama tells her, now, looking at the spot where she spat onto Asano's back.

"Sucks that I'm the doctor, huh," she giggles.

He smiles a little in response, but the smile is weak and strained, forced. "Yes, it does. The bullets need to be removed, and you need those wounds covered to at least stop the bleeding."

"Yeah," she agrees distantly. She'd forgotten she was bleeding. "Wait, I'm still bleeding?"

"I am not sure. You stopped dripping, but that doesn't mean you're done. You said, before, that you would take care of it. I would prefer that you allow someone to help."

"I can do it," she answers. She half-remembers telling him that she wanted to help herself, but the possibility seems slim. This doesn't stop her answer.

"Are you sure?" he asks, smile fading and looking straight up worried, now.

"I can do it," she insists. She picks her head up off Asano's back to look Kurama in the face to prove that she's okay.

"But there are so many. I don't think you can remove all the bullets," he says. "You can't see all of them, and you can't... It would be unwise to let you try this alone."

"I'm fine, Minamino-kun. I can reach all of them, and if I can't, I've got all kinds of tools."

This continues all the way up the stairs.

* * *

"Look, if I can stand up when Asano puts me down, you have to leave me alone," Me'ran barks finally. Asano leans down in front of her door to allow her feet to touch down. She holds her hands up and away from Asano so Kurama can see that she's not holding him or anything else, and she stands on her own.

"Fine," he concedes, looking unhappy, but tying the face back behind his calm. "If Hiei's awake, give him my regards, and don't tell him that I don't look as bad as you."

* * *

So she sits on her bathroom floor in front of the mirror, remove what's left of her shirt (which is difficult considering it tears three times, she can't move one arm properly, and it's soaking wet with this deep, deep beautiful red stuff). That alone is enough to change her mind about this whole process. The splatting noise of the shirt hitting the floor is almost as bad as the sound of the blood that fell out of her mouth after getting all the wounds in the first place.

But lead poisoning... and she doesn't want to, but she has to. Resolve and all that. She's gotta do this. Ah, god, this is gonna hurt.

First, she washes her hands and sanitizes them. Then she gets a pair of those surgical gloves that she bought a box of the other day. And last, she puts on her glasses and sits down.

She sits down on her ass in front of the mirror, and she starts at the first one she can see. It's one tucked into her diaphragm just above her stomach. She pushes two fingers in there. She tries to focus on what she can feel with her fingers, but the pain's overwhelming for the second, and she has to stop and breathe. She keeps pushing until she finds the bullets. The skin stretches, which isn't painful, but the muscles forced to the side...

She feels better about this when she finally pulls out the whole bullet and drops it into the sink. Okay. Good. I can do this. After that, her confidence is built up, and she continues to dig in the obviously shallow wounds to pick the bullets out. The pain is incredible, but she forces herself through it with help from the fact that she goes back to "out of it" after three or four of the bullets.

Five bullets are stuck in her sternum, two in one leg, and one in her forearm. This, she decides slowly, is gonna hurt.

Even so, she takes hold of the butt of the one in her shin, but no sooner than she even touches it and pushes it just a hair one way, she surprises herself with the scream of pain. She pulls her arm out of her coat and puts the sleeve in her mouth, clench her teeth over the wad of fabric, and she closes her eyes and tries again. The arm of the coat is a good gag, but she still can't get that damn thing out. So she drags herself to her feet and staggers to a closet where she's got a kit of stuff she more or less lifted from Sazuna and carries it back to the bathroom. Pliers. That's what she needs.

Alright. She puts the coat sleeve back into her mouth, clenches her teeth in anticipation, closes the pliers over the bullet and pulls once, hard.

Her shriek is caught and muffled by the fabric, and the bullet has been successfully removed. She collapses against the wall and breathes unsteadily for the pain, and then she sits up and closes the pliers around the butt of the bullet in her arm, and she yanks again. That works, too, but she keeps all screaming down to mere choked off cries and groans.

It takes less time than digging the slow way, but it's more painful and damaging, and, in fact, she has to heal what she can to stop the bleeding.

Now's the hard part--The bullets on the inside. She rests on the floor and struggles to deal with the pain that's already bordering on blinding, lancing through her with every move. She's about to take a scalpel to her own guts, but first, she needs to build up the balls. But Hiei startles her when he sits up with a cry of "Me'ran!"

Then he sees her, and he's kneeling in front of her in an instant, picking her head up to make sure she's alive. Concern is plastered to his face, and he's not bothering to hide it. His eyes travel down and up her broken body, and his jaw drops a little.

"You're... How many are in there?" he demands.

"How many are in the sink?" she answers, not needing to ask what the hell he's talking about.

He sits up and looks into the sink and his face does that thing again.

"Twenty."

"Ah, alright. Then there are roughly seventy left."

"You can't be serious."

"Well. Uh. Count the holes in my front, arms and legs included."

He sits back, and he looks over you again and his face twists a second. "There are. This. You. You should not be alive."

"Come on, count as best you can."

He pauses, then closes his eyes and lifts the kekkai over his Jagan for a second, and then he says "One hundred and two."

"And the ones in my back," she commands, getting onto her knees and letting him see her back.

"Seventy-one."

She collapses against the wall again, too tired to bother with caution. "Ah, good, a bunch made through-and-through's. Then. There are." One hundred-two, minus seventy-one... Equals... One minus two... thirty-one. Minus. How many? Twenty? Minus what? Shit! (She tries again and fails, and then gets sick of it and just uses her fingers.) "Eleven left."

"What are you about to do?" he asks, looking at the scalpel in her hand.

"Surgery. Want to watch?"

He doesn't make a sound, so she puts the blade up to the section just below her right ribs and she makes a long slice. She cries out in pain as soon as the blade breaks the skin, but Hiei slaps his hand over her mouth. She bites his forefinger when she closes her mouth to grit her teeth, but he doesn't pull away until after she's made the slice.

"Thank you," she breathes, looking at his finger to see the deep bruising.

"Mm," he groans, shaking his hand a little and examining the deep bruising.

She puts her hand into the hole, and she digs around. Her fingers brush her internal organs, but nothing bad happens. She finds two of them lodged between her ribs in her back, and a few floating over her diaphragm and the rest are easy to find. There are two, though, that she can't reach. They're up near her shoulder blade.

"Hiei, do me a favor and get those last two."

"What last two?"

"They're up by my right shoulder blade. See, through those two holes just above my right tit," she says, pointing at the holes in her front.

He looks at her like she's insane.

"Just reach up there and dig around."

He stops looking at her like she's insane and now looks just absolutely horrified.

"I have no idea... what's..."

"Okay. Wash off your arm. Use that antibacterial crap, too."

He does so, his left arm, and he sits down in front of her again.

"Now what?" he asks, staring at the human girl innocently with large red eyes. It's a look that could go for him, but is completely unlike him.

"You saw how I did it," she tells him, smirking.

She loves the look of horror on his face, too, she decides. He puts his fingers tentatively to the hole in her thoracic abdomen, and he hesitates. She growls quietly at him. It startles him, she guesses, 'cos he almost withdraws and snaps to look at her face, rather than the slit. "If you don't do it, I'm going to force you to put your arm all the way through me, Hiei," Me'ran spits angrily. "Just do it. It's just like foreplay, just a bigger hole in a different part of me."

Slowly, he pushes his fingers, then hand into the hole. The pain is surprisingly bearable. In fact, it barely hurts at all. He digs for a second, then withdraws his hand, clutching two little beads of lead and puts them in the sink, then runs some water into a wash basin and starts scrubbing at his arm as if something's on it. (Well, to be fair, there's a lot of blood on it.)

"I'm going to get all kinds of diseases, doing this shit," she says quietly. She digs into her medical kit again and pulls out needles and thread and gauze and tape. "Tape over the ones in my back, would you?"

"How?" Hiei asks, looking pale already, and like he's about to be sick all over the place.

She takes a gauze square and ex the tape over it and puts it over one in her shoulder. "Like that."

He nods, then starts to work. She starts stitching up her front while he's taping up her back.

After that's finished, she turns on the thing usually used to wash hair, and she doesn't even bother stripping before she starts hosing the blood off her. Hiei has to flee for this part. The water that swims through the drain starts out deep red and then fades to pink. Her hair produces the same deep red for a lot longer, and even brown chunky bits. She takes off her clothes after a little while and let the pink flow off her until she's finally shedding clear water, and she starts through the apartment to her room naked and still dripping. She nearly falls down, but Hiei was waiting outside the door for her and he holds her up and helps her back to the bedroom. He starts to put her in the bed, but she pulls away from him and dresses, and she goes to sit outside on the balcony. It's going to rain, tonight.

"Why are you out here?"

"It's going to rain."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm smart."

"When, then?"

"About three minutes."

Me'ran and Hiei sit in silence for three minutes or so.

"Heh, still a dumb-" he starts to laugh.

The first drops land on her head and she leans over the railing.

"Still a pompous jackass," she answers with a broad smile.

The pair of them get up and go to the roof, and she lies down in the rain on her back, enjoying the cold.

"You weren't there," Hiei mutters as he moves next to her. He's still standing. She thinks his recent surge of emotions has left his ki a little more out of his control than normal--when the rain hits him, it vanishes in a little puff of steam.

"What?" she asks him confusedly, forgetting what he originally said.

"When I woke up the first time. You weren't there."

She smiles and rolls to face Hiei. He looks down at her.

"How'd you manage to take more bullets than me and still be alright enough to operate on yourself?" he demands annoyedly.

She pats her chest with her fist in a Kuwabara-like manner.

"I'm indestructible, baby."

He stares at her, then kneels closer to her and sits next to her and puts his hand on her face. She's surprised by the motion, but she sits up and kisses his lips, and the share the kiss for a second or two. He's so warm that even her chilled body is heated.

"It's scary to wake up weak and alone, huh?" she asks him as she puts her head back down on the floor. He stares at her with those pretty red eyes, and she can see that she caught him off guard. Then he nods.

"There are worse things."

She looks at him and twists her head a little to ask, like what?

"I didn't know where you were."

She smiles a little. "Aw, was Hiei worried about his little girlfriend?" she teases before she sits back up and kisses him again. "It's alright. I can't die, remember?"

He moves behind her and wraps his arms around her shoulders. His tanned skin is hot to the touch, and his breath is even hotter on her neck.

The two of them sit on the roof for a long time. The rain dropping onto her skin is beautiful, and Hiei's arms wrapped around her are even better. Even though he's smaller than her, she can lean against him without worrying about his strength faltering.

"You're sweet, you know?" she tells him. Then she leans her head back and smiles and kisses his nose. It's quiet for a minute. He didn't know what to say to that. So, to end the awkward, she goes ahead and talks. "Oh. And we got those assholes you were after. That's where I was. That's where all the gunshots came from."

"Hm. Asano managed to take you there, then. Good. Who went with you?"

"Kurama. You two found me while I was still at school."

"Did it scare him when they shot you?"

"Nah. It was awesome, though. I pissed him way the hell off."

"Why?"

"Same reason I piss anyone who's hurting me off. Kurama took it well, though. He worried once, when they shot my thigh. He couldn't see, so all he knew was that there was a gunshot and I stopped moving or making noise."

Hiei looks tense and looks down at her again, and she smiles up at him.

"I'm going to sleep, now, Hiei. I love you."

He kisses her forehead and wraps her even more tightly in his arms and lets her fall back against his warm chest. She lets her head rest against his shoulder and feels herself fall into sleep before it all goes black.


	49. Again, Normal Life Ish

_Again, Normal Life... Ish._

"You'll get over the excitement in a few days," Kurama assures her on the following Monday.

She had awakened in her bed to find Hiei gone, but almost her entire body was wrapped in layers of gauze and bandages. She spent all weekend recuperating (mostly just walking around with nothing but the bandages and a pair of boxers), and now she can walk without screaming in pain. She figured out for the most part how to fix the bones and wounds she could see, but never all at once. She has no intention of staying at school all day, either, but she's going to have to do what she can.

"I have over a hundred new scars all over me," she whines. "That's not even counting what I couldn't heal! And they look like bullet wounds. Swimming class is going to suck, and I'm still sore."

He looks at her concernedly. "Most times, I would not advocate it, but I suggest you skip any classes that would involve letting anyone see any remaining wounds or scars. I would give you an excuse, but I don't think 'for health reasons' would work when you have no legal parents with you here. I will talk to your physical education teacher, however."

"Yeah, I had a feeling. I healed what I could, but the ones on my back and on the backs of my limbs, and upper chest had to be stitched up or butterflied."

"You also have a scar in your face. The bullet went in through your mouth and out through your cheek, yes?"

"Oh, yeah, thanks for reminding me," she spits, narrowing her eyes at him. "That was a monster to heal; I'm not used to working in a mirror, left a god-awful scar."

"I rather like them," he says with a strangely lustful look on his face. She nearly falls down for the shock.

"You!?" she as good as squawks after she recovers her feet. Then she gets over the shock, and she laughs. "The world harbors strange things, doesn't it?"

He smiles a little wider, and bashfully. "I suppose it is my demon nature shining, but I have a deep appreciation for battle scars. It adds depth to the way one comes across."

"Doesn't bother you that they might like to fight and that's why they're all marked up?"

"I can hold my own in combat."

"I have yet to see anything but your pretty plant tricks, and I haven't seen you in a real fight, yet. I bet I could beat you hand to hand," she says with a grin, playfully and gently punching his shoulder.

He smiles and shakes his head. "I won't let you test this."

"Why not? Afraid to lose?" she challenges playfully.

"You're already injured, I would hate to add more," he answers with a meek tone.

"Wuss."

"You're probably right--I would probably lose," he admits after a second of thought. "Tactics like mine don't go well against anyone that trusts pure instinct alone. Even Yuusuke plans out a little ahead, but I have yet to see you even move the same way twice in battle. Also, your attacks are almost purely physical, and you are inconsistent at best."

"Mm. I gotta go."

She starts running for class.

She's finally sat down when she realizes that she dated her paper October twenty-fifth.

"_Wow. Not even a week before Halloween. And nearly four months since I talked to anyone in_-"

"ERUFIB!"

She jumps nearly half a foot in the air, then bows a little and starts working on her test.

* * *

This makes her the topic of the lunch conversation again. She's hiding in a tree with her lunch in her lap, trying to eat when she hears a few of the girls call up to her.

"Erufib-kuuuun!"

"No!" she answers quickly, looking down at the girl looking for her and smiling to let her know she's not being malicious.

"Come ooooooon, come talk to uuuuus!" a second one whines, bouncing up and down at the base of the tree.

"I'm going to EAT!" Me'ran answers quickly. "Leave me alone."

"But we wanna know why Ifukube-sensei yelled at you!"

"Baka fa ooh-aahgohoh!"(1) she answers before she swallows the bite of her rice ball. Then she downs her whole juice box, and she drops it onto their heads.

"Where'd that scar come from?" one of the two boys that got dragged out here by their girlfriends asks. Me'ran looks down at him, and her mouth twitches to respond, but no convincing lie comes to mind, and the truth would... work, really, but she doesn't want to tell them a story.

"Scar? What scar?" one of the girls asks.

"That scar on her jaw," a couple more explain, gesturing at their own faces. Me'ran sighs a little, then flees higher into the tree, jumps onto the school wall, then runs down it until she gets to a pipe going up the side of the building and scrambles all the way to the roof, dragging herself over the fence.

A few other students are eating up here, but Kurama's in his usual spot, in the shade, by himself, with a book. He starts when she lands next to him.

"Me'ran. I wasn't expecting you."

"No, I guess not," she agrees.

"What's wrong?" he asks her, now, closing his book and folding it to one side.

"People being people," she murmurs. "And I'm still tired. I hurt just climbing the wall--I'm really out of shape."

"Go on home. I can explain to Sawada-sensei, and he'll excuse you."

"You're _telling_ me to skip school? Great, now the world's gonna end," she cries in a childlike voice, rolling her head back and opening her arms a little to let them flop to her sides.

He smiles at her despite the behavior, then decides to offer a little scolding voice. "Not so loudly. I think having over one hundred bullet wounds is a decent excuse for absence from school. Even I have to skip to recover from injuries, sometimes. Or, at least, I did before you showed up."

To this, Me'ran grins proudly. "Wow, I wouldn't believe it if I didn't hear it with my own ears," she hums. "I guess I'll see you later."

* * *

Back at the apartment complex, Me'ran gets in, shuts the door, kicks her shoes off, then starts to go to her typewriter before she decides to hop out the window and go back to the abandoned building she likes to perch on.

* * *

(1)She said "Boku wa uwagoto" which means, roughly, "I was mumbling." 


	50. What's this shit!

I apologize now for the confusion.

* * *

_What's This Shit?!_

Me'ran's ankles are crossed and her hands are folded behind her head, and she's leaning in her favorite corner, admiring the sky. Hiei's not here, Kurama's not here, it's a nice day, everything's quiet, and it's all really nice.

Then she hears footsteps coming up the stairs inside. She tries to feel out who it is. Kurama.

"It's not that late in the day, is it? Why are you here?" she asks as he comes through the door. She sits up a little better and leans against her knees. "Hiei's not up here. I'm feeling pretty good, so suicide isn't a risk."

"I know," he says slowly. "After I explained to Sawada-sensei, I excused myself as well. I told him I wanted to keep an eye on you, in your frail condition. However, as to why I am really here, I simply wanted to spend time with you is all. If we cannot be... together, I at least want to be friends."

"Or a second choice," Me'ran counters, crossing her legs Indian style.

"I was less hopeful on that, but I would like to be, yes," he confesses after a second with a wry smile.

"No," she tells him firmly. The smile drops instantly, but he doesn't look too hurt. Daunted, but not hurt.

"Why not?" he asks in nearly-whining tones. Well, to be honest, since it's Kurama, it's more like slightly curious and faintly annoyed than whining, but it's safe to assume that Kurama hasn't used a whiny tone since he was old enough to talk.

"It's not just him that's keeping us separate. Told you. You're like my grandmother. You try to take care of me and you worry and stuff," she sighs.

"You never were one for protection," he admits with the smile returning. It looks bitter, now, though.

"Nope. Not me," Me'ran agrees pleasantly. "I liked playing with those plants with you, though."

He doesn't say anything for a minute. She can tell he's trying to think of what he wants to say. Or maybe he knows and just can't word it right. She almost starts talking, but he beats her to it, and starts a conversation.

"Your birthday is next month. A month from yesterday," he says smoothly, simply. But he's hinting at something.

"Yeah. Yours is sometime around now, isn't it?" she asks.

"How did you know that?" he asks, mocking surprise. He meant to do that. He didn't expect her to guess that right off the bat, he thought he'd have to tell her, but his surprise is still false.

"You're a Scorpio. Scorpio-Libra cusp, if I had to guess. So. Today's the twenty fifth. Two days ago at least, right?" she offers lightly, giving little airy movements with her hands. "Your dropping that subtle hint alone was a Scorpio move."

He smiles a little wider. This one's genuine—he knows she's not pulling off what he was trying to talk about, now. She gathered birthdays, but whatever he really wants is still unknown. "Why do you say that?"

"Well, the Western zodiac is more narrowed down, and I know the pieces surrounding my own. Libra appreciate things that are beautiful, and if they're not, they fix them to be that way. They love beauty. And they take great pride in their appearance. The well-groomed bright red, long hair kind of shows that one up. Scorpio, on the other hand, are passionate and cold at once. They're manipulative, and they're usually tactical geniuses. They play with their emotions, rather than letting their emotions play with them. They're usually merciless, too, and their faces rarely show anything useful, even when their feelings are kicking serious ass. Compared to water, deep water, calm surface with a dangerous undertow."

He smiles. "It was four days ago. You're very good."

"Japs don't do birthdays, then?"

"Not after our tenth. Well, we do, but we don't make nearly the deal you Yanks do."

"'Yanks'. That's so silly. You know, my part of the country, the south, we don't call ourselves that, and they insult each other with it."

"Pardon my ignorance. Why?" he inquires, shifting a little and leaning his head to one side in a quirky expression. Kurama's acting odd...

"It's like being called an Osakan. Or whatever derogatory word you have for them," she answers simply, looking at him, trying to make her face look less amused and more impatient.

"Ah," he says, nodding. "I have a request. I know I didn't have anything of a party. But I would like a gift from you." Oh, good, he took the hint.

"What is it?" she asks him, curling back up, putting her chin on her knees. She'd been offered enough time to guess it, but she doesn't feel like being wrong, so she keeps her trap shut.

He moves closer and kneels in front of her. His face is close to hers--so close that she can feel his breath on her knees and chin. She starts to ask him if it's what she thinks.

"I won't ask you to kiss me," he says, anticipating the question she's already opened her mouth to ask, "but I would like it if you would allow me to kiss you. Please."

This gives Me'ran pause. She doesn't know what to do or say. Her mouth closes a second.

"Hiei'll get mad," she says, finally.

"He'll just kidnap you and take you back to demon world. You seem to like it better there, anyway. You don't have to do anything. It doesn't have to mean anything to you. It would mean the world for me, if you would just... allow..."

He creeps closer to her. Already, she's decided that she's going to let him, out of sheer kindness. She has hurt him enough.

She puts her legs down and leans closer to him and closes her eyes. His lips brush hers, first, and then presses to them more firmly, but still so gently that she's hardly aware of it. Already, she knows how much it's been killing him to do this--she can feel that he truly means this, and how much he's showing her through it. It's very different from kissing Hiei--he's so gentle about it, almost girly, and his lips are softer, where Hiei is almost violent with his kisses.

She stays perfectly still, barely leaving any space in her lips, but Kurama doesn't seem to mind this. He sucks on the girl's lips very tenderly, but he keeps his tongue in his own mouth, and he doesn't even open his own mouth very far. She feels the hand he's not using to support himself touch at her neck and creep into her hair, and he keeps himself close, until, after a long time, he sits back. He tasted like hundreds of years and the smell of flowers and plants, which confuses her. She's not sure how to react. She sits back on her haunches and he scoots back a bit.

"You're pretty good, where'd you learn to do that?" she asks him with a soft smile.

He blushes a bright color, but doesn't answer, being either too abashed or shy.

"I'm not sure which one to be more touched by," a voice says. It's not Hiei, which is good, but Kurama still ducks a little.

The figure behind Kurama is tall and thick with strangely curled ears and low earlobes. He's got four arms, too. His tail is cat-like and lashing behind him. He's against the sun so she can't see anything else about him.

"Do you have business with her or me?" Kurama asks as he rises to his feet. Me'ran follows his lead.

"I've not met you," she mutters softly, moving so she can see him better. Kurama stays in front of her defensively, despite how he's probably more vulnerable than she is. The demon flares his youki in an attempt to frighten Kurama. Her heart rate rises, and she pulls Kurama back. She pulls herself onto the wall.

"Me'ran, be careful!" Kurama snaps as she walks along it a little ways.

"I have to have intentions to kill myself if I want to die, calm down," she assures him, still moving. "He's malicious. You should run."

Hiei lands on the outbuilding over the stairs.

"I thought I smelled something foul," he spits. "What the hell's been going on, here?"

"Hi, Hiei," Me'ran sings, voice wavering with her nervousness. The as-far nameless demon gets impatient and moves for Me'ran, running to the wall and starting to attack. She jumps over him and lands behind him. Her ankle twists funny, and she staggers, but she keeps running. Kurama follows her.

"Friend, Hiei?" she asks as she sidles up to the pissed off fire demon.

"No," he answers. "And when we defeat him, you and I are going to have a talk," he adds vehemently.

"Foe?" she asks after stifling a giggle. "And if you think we need to talk, you need to remember that I've got those really irritating moral codes."

"He's not a foe I remember," he says after a minute. Then there's an explosion of movement. Kurama calls Me'ran's name, distracting her, at the same time the monster lunges for her, and there's a flash of green as Kurama's whip slices through the air. Hiei starts to jump out of the way, and Me'ran slides on the ground out of the way, but then Hiei gets caught blind-sided by Kurama's whip, distracting him. "FOX!" Hiei barks angrily, retreating to the ground. But then the monster, while he was cut by the whip, seizes Hiei's robe, which knocks him off balance, and then Hiei's ankle is seized and he's slung into the ground. Me'ran starts for them, seeing the way the blood splattered when Hiei's head hit the ground. Kurama grabs her wrists as she starts to run, and he keeps a firm hold.

"LET GO OF ME!" she roars.

"Are you that desperate to die?" he demands, twisting her arm and doing something with his grip in the other arm that freezes her. She can no longer move without causing herself intense pain.

"HIEI!" she shrieks, looking over her shoulder for the bastard that has Hiei and Hiei himself. She wants to hurt Kurama, make him let go, but she's not sure how. She finally head butts him. He lets go for the shock, and she stunned him with that blow to the head enough that he doesn't grab her again. She runs for Hiei and gets caught and thrown by one of the two hands of the monster that isn't holding Hiei. Her back hits the wall, and she starts to go through it. Kurama grabs her ankle and pulls her back and pulls her to her feet.

"Let's get going, Kisho!" a foreign voice calls from inside the building. Me'ran chases after him and Hiei as he goes down the stairs and through a wall, but when she hits the wall they went through, she just hits wall. Kurama takes hold of her arm as she starts to punch it.

"Don't hurt yourself, you need your hands," he says calmly, staring at the wall.

"_The fuck was that about_!?" she screams. She kicks the wall instead of hitting it, too, and swears at it in English. Kurama pulls her back by the hand he never let go of, drawing her toward him. She turns her anger to him, now, almost moving to hit him, but she tames herself enough to leave it at cussing him. "The fuck did you hold me back for, I could have taken him out, knocked him--"

"You don't know enough about sensing youki to know how strong he was, you did not know what powers he had, and you didn't know if he was one of your kind or not. If he had tried to kill you, you could have died. You've already reopened the wounds on your back," he snaps coldly, showing her the hand he had on her back and the blood that leaked onto it.

"Are you BRAIN DEAD?! I'm not stupid enough to get killed in a fight I know I'm getting into! I'd have died for him anyway; I'd die for any of you! I'd die for all of you!"

"All the more reason to keep you from doing something stupid. Come, now--we can talk to Koenma--he can help us."

Me'ran sits down for a second. Kurama moves behind her to look at the back of her uniform, probably checking for the bloodstains. He finds one, she guesses. She feels him put a seed into the back of her uniform, and she feels it weaving into the fabric. She takes off the jacket and lets him do the same for the A-line under it.

"Thank you," he says. "I'm sorry, but it would be better if we behaved rationally."

"Shut up. Are those plants done sucking the blood out of my shirts?"

"I think that you're still bleeding," he says after a second. She sighs, then pulls the plant off her back and tosses it down, and pulls her jacket back on. "Keep your jacket on to hide the remaining blood," he says after he recognizes the impatience. "I know where Koenma works. We can find him there. He will be able to help us."

"Agreed," she sighs. He stands and offers his hand to help her up. She ignores it, then gets up and slaps him in the back and follows him down the stairs, cussing all the way down.

* * *

This was not one of my better fight-things.

In essence--All three combatants moved at once. Kurama nearly got Hiei and distracted him. Hiei got grabbed and knocked out. Meru freaked, Kurama grabbed Meru. Meru escapes Kurama, guy throws Meru, Kurama saves Meru, Guy escapes.


	51. Poor Hiei

Yes, yes, poor Hiei. I'm so horrible to him. I take away his girlfriends, I try to kill him...

I couldn't wait! I wanted to post it! I love this chapter. Mmmm angsty goodness.

I don't know, Hiei doesn't really angst. He's just such a badass, I seem to be the only one that doesn't hold an opinion that he's one big softy. So putting him in this situation doesn't really seem like such a big deal as it does someone who would freak out and be terrified. But either way.

* * *

_Poor Hiei_

Hiei comes to with a monstrous headache. This is dulled by his pain tolerance, but even so, it hurts to open his eyes or move his head.

"He's come 'round!" someone crows. He finds himself wanting to hurt something, just to make him feel better and relieve some stress. What happened hasn't come back, yet, but he's not worried about that part. He's worried about killing whoever that is.

A rough hand touches his face, and instantly, every muscle in his whole body twitches violently, starting for his sword, or to put himself into a defensive stance, but all it does is lift his feet clear off the ground and send bolts of pain all through his whole body. He hadn't noticed the chains securing him to the wall. Damn Makai steel. Harder to break with youki. Me'ran could do it, or if he had a way to send it against reiki, it would break, but his own pulling wouldn't allow for it.

Then, in one big rush, he remembers. He was watching Me'ran with his Jagan, which wasn't uncommon, considering his constant fears for her safety (damn human brat), and wanting to know what she was up to, and he saw her kiss Kurama. Or Kurama kissing her, anyway, she allowed him that, but she didn't kiss back, his rational mind said at the time, but he wasn't listening to his rational mind. All he really wanted to do was kill the fucking traitorous fox.

And then there was a larger demon that landed there. Hiei wasn't sure what he wanted, but he went to confront him before she got herself hurt.

And then... It all went into a blur, and there was an impact on his head and it all went black.

There's a creature on the floor, a gnomish demon. He's smaller than even Hiei is, and he's ugly.

That's all Hiei takes into consideration before he conjures a fire into his fists and attempts to pull himself free of the shackles holding him to the wall.

"You don't remember me, do you?" asks the gnome on the floor. Hiei tries to kick at him, ignoring his comment. No, Hiei doesn't remember him, but that's not important. The kicking does nothing but jerk his bare foot back to the wall with the momentum, bringing his heel painfully into the masonry. The gnome fuck chuckles. "I didn't think you would, you've killed thousands, from what I've heard of you. I didn't even wind up on the wrong end of your blade, I couldn't ask you to remember me, or my parents."

Hiei pulls again, this time, trying to slide his hand out of the shackles. Something he's learned in the years of his life, shackles do not typically work for people his size unless they were made specifically for demons of his size. His hand slides out easily after he presses it to the wall and wriggles his hand just right. He reaches for the little bastard standing in front of him, overwhelmed with how pissed he is. Bastard, how dare he imprison me!?

His other hand comes out even more easily with his first hand to hold the shackle steady, but as soon as he gets it free, sharp spears are thrust into the parts of his chest not holding anything important (according to Me'ran's teaching) and they pin him back to the wall. He breaks off one's spear and jams it into his throat, sending it all the way through the flesh, and he takes the blade out of his shoulder and throws it into the second one's face.

After the first two, no one comes in. He hears the sounds of metal slamming into the floor, and then a door slams, and he's left in the cell, ankles still chained to the walls. Again, rage fills his whole body, and he feels his youki flare in himself, and he uses it to its full extent, taking the rage out on the door. The wood's been sealed off, warded, so many that he can't even see the wood through it, and the bars in front of the door are just as warded. He sends his fire at it, but they survive well enough. Hiei continues burning the whole room, the few things that aren't stone or Makai steel bursting into flames and everything that is stone or Makai steel beginning to heat up and turn red, effectively turning the cell into an oven.

Hiei fights until he feels himself drained almost beyond using the dragon. So, naturally, to avoid this, he calls on the power of the dragon and sends it at the room to thrash and see if he can make the room crumble. It doesn't work. The seals do not damage it, but it can't get through them. He directs it at himself and consumes it, and he starts trying to attack everything, leaving all kinds of dents and scars and burns on the walls, but no openings appear.

When this finally wears off and he's exhausted, he sits on the floor on his knees. He's not sure how long it's been. It feels like days. He's pretty sure it's been at least one day. He's fought all he can, and no one's helped him, or even opened the door.

Hiei collapses, finally, onto the still-hot floor, but he does not sleep. He can't sleep, now.

And after a while, the door creaks open. He gets to his feet. He's already exhausted, but that doesn't mean he can't keep fighting.

He's attacked. Several men and women, guards, he guesses, lots of them. He fights them off. Without his sword, this is difficult, but he keeps going, fighting, all fists and feet and elbows and fire, but he's so worn down that after enough of them gang up on him, he is successfully pinned down. Shackles and wards and rope, but he's finally bound. His arms are folded behind his back and twisted up violently so that his fingers are brushing the nape of his neck with the backs of his hands touching, and his elbows are touching, and they're held close to his body, not only by the position, but also by a seal going all the way around his chest and arms and wrists. There's a collar on his neck with two chains leading off it, one in front and one in back. The one in front is looped to a ring in the floor. His knees have been bound to his chest in a similar fashion to his arms, with a rope going under the softs of his knees and wrapping all the way around his torso and each leg, and his ankles have been chained together closely.

All in all, he can't move.

This doesn't keep him from trying. As the guards move away, some nursing burn wounds the size of his head, one checks the tightness and effectiveness of all the bonds and chains and ropes and seals. As he checks the collar, Hiei bites his hand firmly. He tastes blood before the guard punches him in the head hard enough to jar his jaw loose. Someone else braces himself over Hiei's back and seizes his chin. Hiei thrashes as well as he can (He has to fight for every motion, probably the effect of the seal), but whoever that is over him is attached to him firmly. Someone else moves closer with a small vial in his hand, but Hiei thrashes, closing his lips with his teeth so hard that he tastes his own blood, until the bastard drops it.

He fights off three more vials of whatever that potion is, until they finally give up, leaving him on the floor, bound helplessly. He despairs for a moment. He tries to use the Jagan, but there's a seal over the kekkai headband, in addition to the kekkai headband itself, so he can't use it. He wants to seek out Me'ran, or Kurama, or someone that can help him, but he can't. He responds to this helplessness and despair by trying harder to break himself free. He hurts himself, twisting and straining the muscles in his arms, but ignores the damage.

And he does this for what feels like an eternity. Now and then, he'll stop fighting, but then someone tries to pour whatever that is in the vial into his mouth and his struggles begin anew.

Until, finally, he stops, and they stop... It feels like it's been months he's been down here. He knows it's only been a few days at most, but he's worn down, and he doesn't feel well, anymore, and the Jagan is commanding him to sleep, forcing him to recuperate. He doesn't want to. He can't sleep, yet, but he can't fight it. His eyes flutter shut, and his head falls. He picks it back up, but this is short lived.

Goddammit! No! is the last thought before his forehead touches the cold stone floor and he is forced into sleep by exhaustion and fatigue.

He wakes up as he swallows an ice cold formula by reflex, to save himself from drowning. Almost instantly, he regrets the action, and he wills himself to throw up, but already moving is even harder than it was before, after they put the seals on him. He feels it, but it's slow. And then it gets faster, after a little while, and his system is flooded by the cold feeling. Goosebumps rise all over his skin, almost reminding him of when Me'ran touches him. He twists and writhes, trying every method heard of to make himself sick, but none of them work. His mind is starting to cloud, and his eyes are either closed, or he's gone blind. His body goes on its own, he feels, the pain of the shackles and the straining muscles in his arms, though at best, it's distant, and he's only half-aware of the motions or the pain.

He hears himself moan, but he's not sure why. He thinks he might be in more pain than he's aware of.

For some reason, his mind, in its despair, he guesses, reaches out. He remembers, for some reason, the feeling of cool skin on his, her dully clawed fingers running through his hair and scratching his scalp in the most soothing way he's ever felt. He wonders who that might be, for a little bit, completely forgetting the "her" he knows he's thinking about, the fair-skinned woman laying under him with her mane of hair spread out under her wildly smiling face, and the way the moon highlights the lines of muscle on her body, and the way even he can feel her heartbeat when she lays herself over him after making love.

"Me'ran!" his voice gasps. He's only half-aware of it, but he knows he said it, and that's the "her" that he's remembering. His rational mind, what of it remains (not a lot) clings to her memory. If this is killing him, whatever it's doing to him, whatever it is, he can't let it. He has to see her again. He can't let it keep her away from him. He can't let that fucking fox have her, and he can't leave her without him. He remembers how, when he was cold to her, or when he was angry with her after she asked him what his story was, she began to wither, almost immediately. He can't let her be like that again, not this time.

He hears a high pitched cackle, and he feels things touching him, but he can't fight them off. He feels that everything's been cut off. All his senses are refusing to report, like it's not getting to his brain properly. He can only sort of hear, he can't smell or taste anything. He's blind, too, but that doesn't mean much. He can feel half of the stuff going on around him, the shackles and ropes and seals, and someone poking and prodding at him. His arm moves before he wills it to, but that just hurts. He wishes Me'ran was here, he catches himself thinking. Damn human girl, never was good for a fight or for anything he wanted, but she was exactly what he needed, sometimes, and he was never as ashamed of help from her as he was of Kurama's, because he always knew that she would never judge him, while Kurama would always have that part of him that was arrogant and snide. His mouth calls her name again, again, outside his command or will.

Dammit!

Slowly but surely, his senses finish dying. He's not sure if he's dead or not, but he doesn't become spirit. He's still in his body. He can't feel anything, he can't hear anything, he can't see anything, he can't smell anything, he can't even taste anything.

He can, however, think.

"Fucking hell" is about the only thing that comes to mind.


	52. Waiting a Week

_Waiting a Week_

"I'm afraid I can't help you," Koenma says. "Since the barrier's been taken down, we've been unable to keep track, much less regulate, demons coming through. Even if I could get back to Spirit World, I doubt we could find anything useful."

Kurama's last little bit of "It'll be okay" has just been put down. Me'ran's sitting on the floor, staring hard at the wall, wondering exactly what will be the consequences if she just hits him. Or maybe she should make her target Kurama, instead, for holding her back in the first place?

"Merlin?" Koenma asks concernedly.

Hearing her name in English startles her, and she looks and blinks dumbly. "What?"

"Are you alright?" He's leaning over his desk, trying to get a good look at her.

"No," she tells him honestly before she goes back to staring at the wall. Kurama guides her to her feet by her hand.

"Perhaps they'll contact us? Or he will?" Kurama offers weakly.

"If he doesn't in a week, I'll remove your eyeballs from your sockets," she warns quietly.

Koenma looks confused. Kurama sees this, and he smiles dumbly. "You always suspected that romance would bloom between her and one of us. It turns out, you were right," he says with a slight wave. "Come on, Me'ran. In a week's time you will have healed enough to go to Demon world and find him. I'll take you myself."

"Assuming I've been merciful enough to let you keep your eyes. _Bastard-ass mother fucker,"_ she growls, switching to English to cuss him sufficiently.

"What?" he asks with a chuckle

"I called you a mother fucker. And bastard-ass, which is my own creation."

He nods slowly, then pats her back.

"If he's dead, I'll take out your tongue while I'm at it," she warns him.

"I'll let you, if he's dead," he answers easily. "You have to be patient, though. A week, do you understand? I will need to track him, and you need to heal--you're still weak from blood loss since Leo shot you."

"Alright. You've got 'til next Tuesday."

* * *

School continues, life continues, but all of it feels less real, probably because she's very badly distracted. Every morning, she almost tricks herself into feeling Hiei's weight on the bed, but it's never there. She has a few nightmares featuring his dead body, too. And, most of the time, her daydreams consist of wounding the shit out of Kurama. This is starting to reflect in whatever she's been writing or drawing. Lots of sharp things and blood are featured on the backs of tests and the margins of notes. Kurama stopped walking to school with her right after the incident, so she's pretty sure he knows this.

"Erufib-san?" someone in class asks her one day.

"Huh?" she asks, coming out of her self-induced stupor. She doesn't look at her peer, but she does turn her head to one side to acknowledge the girl's presence.

"A-(1) um... Are you okay?" she asks. She's folded her hands up next to her chest and is rocking back and forth nervously, as if worried that Me'ran's about to swing around and bite her.

"I'm fine," Me'ran answers softly, struggling to not be too greatly annoyed at the little girl.

"You don't look so good," the girl says, gaining confidence due to the fact that her face is still intact. Me'ran is quiet for a second, making herself relax.

"I'm just. I'm okay," she finally sighs, dropping her head onto her desk.

"Where's Minamino-kun been?" she asks hesitantly.

"Is that all you were going to ask me?" Me'ran barks maliciously, turning her head to the other side before she sits back up and glares at the girl.

"Well, we know you used to hang around him, but you don't, anymore. I thought that might be what's wrong," she mumbles, afraid of the American, now, because of the strong reaction.

"I scared him a little while ago," she says, finally looking up at the girl. In Me'ran's class, there are fifteen other girls. Two weeks after Me'ran started coming to school (after she was seen with Kurama), more and more girls started wearing boys' uniforms. It got up to over half the class, but after it seemed Me'ran and Kurama were doing quite well, relationship wise, it dwindled to five, all of whom bothered her frequently. Over the last few days, that number's up to eleven. This one is still in a skirt. Her pretty brown hair and black eyes shine down at Me'ran in the scared-est form of kindness. She also looks concerned, but she's not sure if it's for Me'ran or for the girl's own health.

"You're not wearing a boy's uniform," she points out when she realizes that the girl isn't going away, yet, despite the fact that she hasn't said anything.

"Oh! Wa, wa (2), I always thought you were with him. So did the others, but I don't want to be mean and take your chance to get back with him away. I don't like boys' uniforms, either."

"I've never been with him," Me'ran chuckles, telling her what she's told anyone else related to the matter. It's amazing that everyone doesn't think he's gay at this point, holy shit. "He met me when I moved here; he's been helping me adjust to Japan. My uniform's just because I don't like skirts."

She smiles kindly. Me'ran finally looks the girl in the eyes. She looks back, and she suddenly freezes. After a second more, her mouth falls slack and she pales a little. Me'ran looks at her a little better, breaking eye contact and rising to her feet. The girl looks at Me'ran, then squeaks and runs. Me'ran puts her head back down on her desk. The girl flees to her three fellow skirt-clad friends.

Then there's the weekend, and then it's Monday, and then Tuesday, which marks the week being up. Kurama hasn't talked to her, yet, but she decides to go to school anyway, until he approaches her. Well, then again, she's still trying to remember where he lives. She's really eager to just beat the shit out of him, but he's been avoiding her like the plague, probably for the same reason she wants to find him. She's got half a mind to just ask Sawada-sensei where he lives.

* * *

After school, he still doesn't approach her. She gets home, and he still doesn't show up. She goes to her closet and digs out her medical kits, and she pulls on her Makai outfit (she's sewn the holes in it shut), and she's trying to remember if she knows where Kurama lives. She's about to ask Yuusuke when she finally senses Kurama before he knocks on the door.

"You made finding you easy," she says, pleased, grabbing him by the collar of his jacket (he must have gone home to change clothes or something) and pulling him inside and slamming him on his back against the wall. Her hand goes to his face, but he grabs it. He tries to force her back, but she's as strong as him, if not stronger, so he can't.

"I've come to take you to Demon World. You've got friends and debts to collect there, as have I--we'll be able to find him. I already know where he is, and he's not dead," he says quickly, all at once and in one breath, trying to appease the pissed off Healer.

She stops trying to reach for his eyes and stands back with her weight on both feet. "Where is he?"

He looks relieved, but still tense, and he folds his hands. "This won't mean anything to you, but he's in No-Man's-Lands south of Raizen's called Ariseki. Are those clothes made for both weathers? Can it keep you warm and cool?"

"Yeah."

"Good. We're going," he says, taking her hand. "I warn you now; you may not appreciate the condition he's in."

"What's that mean?" she growls. He winces.

"I mean that... You'll see. Are you sure that thing will keep you warm and cool?" he asks again, giving her a narrow-eyed look. "Remember that the Makai is harsher than the Ningenkai."

"It's good enough. Why are you worried?"

He doesn't answer. Instead, he asks, "What shoes are you wearing?"

"Boots. They're kinda ninja boots, I can't remember the name of them," she answers, lifting her hakama leg to show him. He nods, then looks at her face, no more relaxed than before.

"Are they warm? Do they have good enough surface area to not sink into sand?" he asks, now. "Will they protect your feet from extreme temperatures?"

"A desert? Are you shitting me?"

"I'm afraid that I'm not. I'll have help, and you might, as well. You're surprisingly popular."

He takes her back to the condemned building, and takes her into the basement. Apparently, there's a permanent sort of portal, through here--several demons are gathered. A few stand up when Kurama approaches. His whole stance changes, and he gets bigger, and broadens his shoulders, and his face grows less soft. They sit back down.

"Kurama?" she asks curiously.

"I'm a little different when that smell hits me," he explains. He doesn't sound nearly as apologetic as normal.

"Fine by me. Let's go."

* * *

(1)"A" was "anou".

(2)"Wa, wa" is the beginning of "Watashi", feminine form of "I".


	53. Beginning of the Journey

_Beginning of the Journey_

Kurama takes her to the ground with a gigantic pair of plant-wings. As their feet touch down, Me'ran feels a surge of youki, and suddenly, he grows a lot taller, and his hair grows even longer and white/silver, and his clothes change into white robes, and he gets a tail and his ears go weird, moving up his head and getting a longer and pointy and growing fur.

"That's very hot," she points out as his eyes grow narrower and turn yellow while his face gets longer. He smirks, flexing his hands and wrists idly, as if getting used to the body.

"I can't believe I can spend over a thousand years in a body and still forget its powers and abilities in less than twenty years," he mutters to himself before addressing Me'ran. "This is the form Hiei's most familiar with. I don't commonly appreciate this body, but my human body is not as easily accepted in Demon World, and this body's a little hardier than my human body, in addition to my senses being heightened. Plus, my 'friends' wouldn't recognize me otherwise." The way he says 'friends' is more like a joke, almost like he's saying it and laughing about it behind his face.

Then he says, "Speaking of friends," turning on one foot and facing a row of rock-faces. "Come out."

Four demons step out. Two are heavy-laden with stuff to carry, and the other two are obviously carrying stuff, but not as obviously, or as much. One of the pack mules and one of the not-pack-mules are both a little taller than Kurama's new form, and they're clad in cloaks and weird masks that keep Me'ran from seeing their faces. Then the other two are between her height and about six feet tall, and she can see their faces. One has ears like Kurama's and coarse, short red hair and is thicker than Kurama, but not particularly big. She checks for a tail, but she can't see one. He's also got ruddier skin than Kurama. Me'ran wonders what kind of demon he is. She looks to the other's face, and she takes a second to look before she suddenly remembers his face. She thinks he was the last one Hiei fought last time.

"It's you," he says incredulously, obviously recognizing her, too.

"You're the last one Hiei had to fight, last time I was here," Me'ran says, guessing.

"I was, yes," he agrees. "You're going along with him, now?" he asks, now, gesturing at Kurama.

She almost mentions the threat, but Kurama does it for her. "I suppose that could be the way to put it. More accurately, I am her guide. She's got me under threat of eye and tongue removal," he jokes quietly. The guy they're talking to laughs and shakes his head.

"I can see why that would be a worry. Have your skills improved that much since I saw you last?" he asks Me'ran, looking impressed. She puts her head down to hide the blush.

"I'd have to paralyze him before I did anything to him, but that would be easy enough," she mutters.

"A great demon like you can't kill a human like that?" the shorter of the two not carrying anything asks/demands of Kurama. "I don't want to follow a demon that can't even beat a simple human into Ariseki! I want a demonstration!"

"I do not know if I could defeat her in a battle, but this is hard to call. She is far from a simple human. If you want a demonstration, I'm not going to give it to you--in a battle between the two of us, the victor is uncertain, but neither of us would escape unscathed, and both of us will need our health. I will, however, ask if you are willing to fight her to prove my point."

The demon rolls his eyes and sneers. "I'll fight her just fine, but you gotta talk to her--looks like she's scared."

"Prove your point?" Me'ran asks, quirking her eyebrow at Kurama and scowling. He smiles and looks down to her and kneels next to her so they're on even ground.

"I apologize for this, Me'ran, but it's necessary. Will you fight him?"

"Why's it necessary?" she demands. "I don't like fighting, you know that."

He apparently hears her, 'cos he laughs and turns to the other not-pack-mule and knuckles his companion's arm. "Hear that, she don't like fighting. She's just scared."

Kurama sees this and sighs and waves an arm toward the one laughing. "Because humans are automatically prey to some demons, and unless they prove otherwise, they stay that way, no matter whose friend, companion, pet, slave, or food they are. You will need to prove yourself against him."

"What if I get my ass kicked?" Me'ran asks, crossing her arms and slouching irritably.

"Then the fact that you can still get up will prove enough of a point. He won't be able to keep you down, judging by all that you've been through. It will take four days of travel, and any damage he can do that will last that long can be healed." He pauses, and then smiles. "Also, I haven't seen you fight in a long time, and I want to see if your technique has changed at all."

She sighs, then sits down and takes off her glasses and her medical kits and hands them to Kurama. The guy smirks. "You're takin' this seriously, huh?" he chortles before he sheds all he's carrying and hands it to his companion. Kurama and the others all step back.

First, he runs at her. She knows what he's gonna do, but she figures if she lets him land the blow, she'll be alright. If she ain't, she'll get up a little later. As the blow lands, she slides backwards and kneels, putting her hand to her cheek.

The guy laughs. "Did you see that? She couldn't even dodge! I hope you can fight better than that, Youko Kurama!"

Kurama, though, is looking at his human companion with his eyes narrowed in confusion. "Me'ran, why did you let him hit you?"

"I was testing him," she answers, pressing on the red spot in her cheek. "I don't like hurting people, so I was gonna see if it was necessary. It isn't. Give me a second."

The man doesn't like being challenged, if she had to guess. He steps back, takes a knife out, and jumps up. In the instant he jumps, she almost misses the motion, but then she sees his shadow moving steadily toward her. But even so, she doesn't move. She just pauses long enough to figure out how she intends to make him regret this move.

She waits right until she feels the edge of his knife on her hair and she takes a single step back. His knife hits her keigoki, but she stepped back just far enough. He dove at her with his hands--not smart. She follows him as he flips to his feet, keeping too close for him to do anything and too far away for her to miss anything he tries. As soon as he's firmly on his feet, she attacks, lunging as fast as she can. He tries to put his knife into her, but she dodges behind him and climbs up his back. He moves too slowly to do anything as she wraps one hand around the side of his neck, pressing one point in the front and two in the back. He crumples like a piece of paper in an artists' fist and falls. He lands on his face spread-eagle due to the limpness of his body. She went down with him, kneeling on his shoulders once he landed. She steps off him. He's staring out, drool coming out of his mouth. She makes sure she didn't overdo it, then sits him up and crosses his legs and then puts her knee firmly into his back. His head twitches upright but when she moves away, he falls backwards, probably for the shock.

"Are you alright?" she asks him, leaning down and checking his pupils. "I might have gotten a fourth point with my thumb--it was harder to aim on you, 'cos I'm clumsy and your neck's really, really small," she explains, mostly to Kurama, who now looks concerned. She checks his breathing and makes sure that he doesn't have a heartbeat and everything else that she's learned replace a demon's heartbeat

He's still staring at Me'ran emptily. She puts her hand to his face, touching her knuckles to the back of his head and stretching her concentration to his mind, to the chemicals being secreted and checking all of the activity and goings on. Nothing's wrong. She slaps his forehead with the back of her hand after she determines this. Everything's regular. She takes his hand, now, and pulls him to his feet. He stands up, but he still seems shocked.

Me'ran returns to Kurama's side. He holds out her glasses and medical kits. "He's in shock," she explains as she put her glasses back on.

"Medically?" Kurama asks concernedly.

"That voice is a lot less girly than your human voice. No, not medically. He can't believe he just got floored by a human." And the medical kits, and are they both still shut? Good.

"That was quick. You don't even have to fight," Kurama says. "A talent derived from the pressure point knowledge? That's good to know. What do you do when they're not humanoid?"

"I do it that way to avoid hurting them--you know I hate being the cause of pain on purpose. But when they're not humanoid, I attack bloodstream. Intense drops in--Are we ready to go? We can talk on the way."

"Yes. Let's go," Kurama agrees.

"Which way are we going?"

Kurama kneels and etches a rough shape into the earth.

"We're aiming for here," he says, pointing at a spot towards the bottom in the middle. "We are here," he adds, pointing at a different spot with his other hand. The spot they're aiming for is to the south west. Me'ran looks up.

"The sun rules apply here, too, right?" she asks. It was four or so when they left, and the sun's that way...

"Are you asking if it rises in the east here, too?" Kurama asks, narrowing his eyes in his confusion.

"Yeah."

"Wise to ask. Yes, it does."

West. South. "Then we need to go that way," she says, pointing southwest.

"Mm," he agrees. Me'ran looks over the land. It's by no means flat, but the dunes are low enough to see from here to a large rock-face. She can see the heat rising off the bright orange ground, blurring the brown-red shape so far ahead.

"Do we have enough water for six people?" she asks concernedly. "For however long it'll take us to get there?"

"We should, unless something goes wrong. It shouldn't," Kurama says, but something in his voice pulls. Something's bothering him.

"I can give up my share if it comes down to it," she offers, now. "Come on," she adds, standing upright and starting to hike. No one moves, but she keeps moving, turning to walk backwards. "Come on!"

Kurama looks at her and scowls and smiles at the same time, then tries to catch up. "I hope that keigoki is cool enough," the one that fought her growls as they start following Kurama and Me'ran.

* * *

It only takes a few minutes for Me'ran to get hot and thirsty. She doesn't ask for any water, though. She starts running through all the ridiculous factoids in her head about how humans don't get enough water, and some get too much, but she can go all day without a drink of anything and not notice. She's also wondering if the heaviness in her legs is because of the sand or not.

"Kurama?" she asks after a little while. It's the first time anyone's spoken since departure, and the sudden noise startles the others.

"Yes?" Kurama asks politely. He was not startled, and seems pleased that someone's finally broken the silence.

"This part of the Makai blows," she reports.

"Does it?" he chortles.

"Yes. It does. I want it to rain. Which, unfortunately, involves wind, which will involve a lot of flying sand, and I'm not sure if I really feel like trying to pump sand out of anyone's lungs. I'll probably have to remove them to get it all out," she continues whining, mostly doing it to end the silence.

"What the hell is the human babbling about?" the one she fought barks.

"The human," she answers, glaring over her shoulder at him. "Is wondering about how to get sand out of your lungs if any of you happen to breathe any in. It's also wondering if the bastard that's treating her like shit will be worth saving, especially considering what a lousy fight he is."

"Me'ran, be kinder," Kurama scolds quietly.

"Fuck that guy," she answers angrily, glowering, but she does go quiet to spare Kurama the effort of kicking any of them.

It's a good thing she shut up. It lets her hear the one she just barked at running in the sand. She stops walking so she can get a better grip on the ground, not that that's saying much. She waits 'til she feels him closer behind her, and she drops and rolls out of the way, and she slides in the sand down a slight slope. She can't get upright properly, with everything below the top of her knee being buried in sand and her arms half in it as well. He dives at her, but the sand makes it hard for him to get a good kick off, and the landing sucks--he slides onto his stomach. Me'ran rolls onto her side to get her legs out of the sand, then climbs on top of him and pinches his trachea shut.

"Alright, now, are you going to stop?" Me'ran asks challengingly. He gags in response, and his arms flail in an attempt to get her, but she's got her legs sitting on his humeri or humeruses, whatever the plural is. "Tap when you're done."

He continues flailing for a while, until he finally passes out. Me'ran lets go of his throat and wakes him up with an adrenaline kick. He starts flailing again. His body's half-sunk into the sand, and he's fighting to keep his chin over the sand. He's sinking as if it were water.

"Let me up!" he pleads.

Me'ran gets up and slides a little, and uses the slide as leverage to pull him to his feet, and she starts climbing up the slope back to Kurama, which is a clumsy process. Kurama takes the human's hand and guides her to the top, and she, to be kind and to offer some form of truce, takes the other guy's hand and pulls him up.

"Are you and Zenjirou done fighting?" Kurama asks annoyedly.

"Ask him. You know how I work. I'm done when they are," the human girl answers crossly, crossing her arms and glaring at Kurama.

Kurama gives Zenjirou a look, and she feels him shrink and go to the back of the group. The one that she recognized moves forward. Me'ran makes an attempt to remember his name, but when this turns up completely fruitless, she begins to doubt that she ever learned it in the first place. In fact, that last fight he had with Hiei was the only memory she had to her disposal; she couldn't even remember how he got injured the times she did heal him. But what she's noticing now is that he looks concerned for her.

"Did he hurt you?" he asks meekly.

"Why are you asking about me?" she asks, cocking her head to a side. "You remember all the injuries I took that night, don't you? It's hard to hurt me."

He looks mildly annoyed. "I fought Hiei, doesn't mean I don't appreciate what you did for us, considering that you healed all of us, even though we owed you nothing, you didn't know who we were, nor were we even your kind. You saved me twice, and then a third time when you healed the damage Hiei did."

"Pathetic," Zen. Dammit, I already forgot his name. Growls.

"He'll forgive you when you save his ass or he kicks yours beyond getting up," the one talking to her whispers reassuringly into her ear and pats her shoulder

"Why couldn't we get a portal closer to our destination?" she whines to Kurama.

"Because only a few permanent ones are set up. This one was farthest south. Stop fighting with him, he will only get worse," Kurama growls back, apparently getting annoyed.

"Yeah, fuck him," she sighs. "Who are you?" she adds, looking at the one being friendly.

"I'm Riki. Nice to see you again."

"Yeah, good to get a proper introduction. I'll forget your name soon enough. I'm bad with names," she says cheerfully, giving him a little walking-bow and clapping her hand on his back in greeting.

"Don't worry about it," he answers. After that, the conversation dies.

* * *

A little over an hour or so later, Kurama looks at Me'ran, who is hunched over and panting wolfishly, then over at the group, who, while not visibly suffering, is obviously not having an easy time coping with the heat. He gives Riki a signal that Me'ran doesn't see, and Riki moves back. A little bit of water is passed around, and she gets a small cupful, and so does Kurama.

"If it does come down to it, would you rather we let you dehydrate? We'll save some to revive you with--I know how to find more, if all else fails," Kurama says softly.

"Why are you asking?" Me'ran asks, not letting him know that she recognizes the dread feeling from earlier. He's still uneasy, and she's half-got a feeling of why.

"Your lips are already chapped. I failed to take your humanity into account. You commonly display a toughness that surpasses the typical human's, and so I did not prepare enough water for a human," he says hesitantly. "I'm afraid there won't be enough to support you in these conditions."

She smiles a little to appease him. The idea sucks, really, but there's little else to do, now, and it can't kill her. "I don't mind. I offered before, remember? I can start going without now, if need be. If you get really lucky, if I pass out, it'll rain. I'm supposed to be saved by freak chance, and rain in the desert sounds likely. That or we'll come across an oasis being hidden by the heat."

"Just make sure your hands are well cared for," he says with a very weak smile.

"Why are you worried about my hands? They're not even pretty--I've got manlier hands than either of your forms," she says, examining the thick fingers and broad palms before showing them to the feminine fox-demon.

"Human hands are fragile, and you need them. It will get very cold, tonight, and I'd hate to watch you amputate your own fingers. That will be troublesome for all of us, and I am under the distinct impression that Hiei will be very unhappy if he finds you've marred such useful tools."

She almost laughs to hear him talk so strangely. He's bugged, that's obvious. She smiles up at him and pulls her hands into her keigoki sleeves.


	54. Hidosabaku

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

* * *

_Hidosabaku_

Me'ran and Kurama and Riki and Zenji (nickname) and Natsu (The other not-pack-mule, one of the tall ones, other than Zenji) and his sister (the other pack-mule and tall one, other than Riki, who Me'ran thought was a man but saw that she wasn't after she removed her cape--very not a man, for that matter, she's got friggin' huge boobs!) Naoko are treading through the desert.

Last night ended with Me'ran spooning with Kurama, curled into her clothes and letting him wrap his whole body around her in his sleep. He was freezing cold, which was the only reason she was permitting it. That, and Kurama's skin in this form is even softer than his other form, and the small hairs make it feel much like velvet and the white glow in what moonlight is coming through the tent makes it very pretty. She didn't sleep well because of it, but she stayed pretty warm. The other four were pretty much on their own, but they were better prepared than both Me'ran and Kurama, though the brother and sister also wound up snuggled together for the night.

They've been walking all day. This is the last quarter of the second day. There's still water left, but they're all rationing it carefully, since the rock-face on the other side of the desert doesn't look any closer than before. So they've each had a little less than two cups of water in the last thirty six hours. This, normally, would be enough to sustain a human body, but the loss with Me'ran's sweating and the unusual amount of effort of just walking because of the sand...

The sand is firmer, here. There are patches of desert like this, apparently. Me'ran wouldn't know--she's never been to one, until now. But even so, her legs are heavy, and she keeps getting vision snow, with those little blinking lights, the irritating little spots in her eyes that she's begun to chase out of boredom. She's aware of the fact that she's at least mildly dehydrated, mostly due to heat and the sweat. To reduce a little of this, she's opened the keigoki and put it over her back, and she's been putting it over her head now and again to protect herself from sunburn.

Her mind's been going a little weird. Normally, seeing Kurama pant doggishly would only cause a grin, but now it's causing manic laughter. His tongue is hanging out over his teeth and she hears his rapid breath and she can't help but cackle, before her head starts to hurt.

"Me'ran, are you okay?" Kurama asks her after she puts her hand to her head.

"Yeah, fine, just. Headache. Bastard did it on freakin' purpose," she groans quietly.

"Would you like to be carried?" Kurama inquires politely.

"How the hell are you not tired?" Me'ran barks crankily, not answering his question, using her tones to say "no".

"I'm in my demon body. You're the only human, here--you're physically weaker than us," he answers sort of. No direct answer, which seems to be the game she's playing.

"Oh, yeah," she mumbles. "Damn, I'm tired. It's fucking hot. Don't carry me until I can't walk, it's too fucking hot."

"It helps that I don't sweat, either," Kurama says absently, still talking on his last topic. She wonders if he even heard her. "It prevents dehydration to an extent. Are you okay?"

"I'm okay," she tells him, testing her own plodding pulse.

Riki moves up and looks at Kurama, who shakes his head.

"So we've agreed to keep me at a level just above death? Or go ahead and let me try to die?" Me'ran asks. She knows what Riki just asked him.

"Well, that part is entirely up to you," he says after a bit of thought. "Tell me, now, while you're still lucid."

"Will I need that much water?" Me'ran asks the air, wondering at the weakness of human bodies. Seeing demonic wounds of war, just how much humans needed to survive when demons needed so little and could walk off a wound that would kill a human easily; she was amazed at her own weakness. And she was tough for a human!

"Well, we didn't bring that much. You've had most out of us, and you still need more. I failed miserably in this round of preparation. Dehydration can cause death, but I'm not sure how, or what it does. I suppose you know more about that than I ever will."

"I can probably spit out a facts sheet," she mutters, with her mouth going on automatic. "I remember. Something about. No, nothing, sorry, man," she mutters. She strains to remember, but she just can't.

He frowns, then there's a sweeping motion and her head swims as he pulls her up into his arms. She kicks and tries to roll, but something reaches out of his hair to seize and hold her, keeping her from fighting him properly. "No, no, no, put me down!" she commands. She wants to hit him, but she can't--she's got her arms bound to her sides. The strength to fight doesn't last long, anyway. She drops limply against his chest and into his arms, and the plant vanishes back into his hair.

"You need to preserve what you've got left," he says smoothly after she settles down. "We can't have you straining yourself; you are much too valuable for that."

"Brain cells," Me'ran's mouth says for her. She almost remembers what she was going to say. "Brain cells die. Yeah. Dry out. But that's usually after the lungs plug up due to mucus thickening for lack of water dilution."

"Mm."

She gets one more drink, but only a mouthful, and then Kurama and she wraps her keigoki around her torso. He picks her up and cradles her, then fixes her sleeve over her face, pretty much leaving her helpless. She's not as aware of that as she is of the fever and the stupid spots in her eyes that don't go away. The sweat collects on her face so much that she's sure she could drink it.

"Me'ran?" Kurama asks her.

"Mm?"

"Just checking. If you get to the point you're passing out, we're going to give you some water, alright?" he says decisively.

"No," she answers just as firmly. "It'll probably be better if you just let me try to die. Something'll save my ass; I want to find out what and how. That and it'll be better to save it because we know something will help me, and it might be beneficial to you guys, too. What's this place called?"

Kurama tenses a little, and his hold on Me'ran gets a little tighter, and he moves one arm to pull the keigoki sleeve off her face. He's ignoring her question. "Are you sure? This isn't delirium talking, is it?"

"I'm not delirious," she objects quietly. "I'm just. I don't want to be a burden."

"It's my fault; I didn't take you into proper account."

"Don't do that. I'm alright. Don't worry about it anymore, okay? Let me sleep," she mutters, turning her face to his chest. He covers her face back up. She hears a couple of the demons behind him talking, and then Zenji speaks up.

"Is she going to die?"

"She can't," Riki answers.

"The hell she can't, she's a damn human! Their life spans are only as long as I am old, she's already a quarter through it, I don't see why she can't die."

"Probably closer to a little under a fifth," Kurama says coldly, every hint of the caring and concern in his voice last time gone. "She's Undying. Calm down, Zenjirou."

"Calm down my ass, I'm not gonna haul dead weight along. She can't handle this, and she's been getting more water and carrying less than any of us, plus she's smaller."

"You're not carrying her," Kurama points out. "She's refused any more water. Please calm yourself."

Riki seems put out by this.

"What if one of us gets hurt?"

"I'm enough of a healer to substitute," volunteers the other female in the group, Naoko, the taller pack-mule. "What the hell could possibly hurt us anyway? We'll have to revive her before you raid Ariseki."

"Please stop talking about me," Me'ran requests, tapping Kurama's chest with her knuckles. Kurama looks down at her and moves the sleeve again, revealing her face to him. She winces because of the sudden light in her face.

"What?"

"I don't like hearing you guys talk about me."

"My apologies. Zenjirou is worried about you."

"I figured he was pissed off that I was taking more water," Me'ran answers with a weak smirk. Gods, I should not be this fucking sleepy, she cusses to herself. When did I get this tired?

"His affection is similar to Hiei's, only he didn't have six months to fall in love, so he's still just showing it the way he normally does. By the way, I'm thinking of letting someone else carry you. You get heavy after a little while--" and he has to pause to chuckle at the sudden appearance of the human girl's middle finger--"Tomorrow, I'll let someone else carry you, alright?"

"Give me to Zenji, he needs something to bitch about," Me'ran says with a smirk. "We won't have to worry about spooning, tonight, either," she adds after a few moments of thought. "I've got a fever."

"Yes, I've noticed. Is there anything you would like me to do for you? To make you more comfortable, I mean. I would prefer that you stay conscious as long as you can."

Me'ran pauses a minute and tries to think of something. It'll make him feel better to offer him some control over the situation. So she branches out your mind a little, and she pulls on the panting from before to just strike up a conversation. "You can talk to me."

"Is that it?" he asks, his face falling. But even so, he looks relieved. She smiles a little and nods.

"There's just stuff I wanna know. Alright. What's this place called?" 

"It's called Hidosabaku." 

"Cruel desert? People aren't very creative, are they?"

"Human world has the desert desert, does it not?"

"Oh, yeah. The Gobi. Or was it the Sahara... Oh well. So I know you don't sweat, and that's the fox-thing, right? 'cos Hiei sweats. Not often, I guess, because I've never seen him sweat much. I think it's because he's a fire demon, and he can tolerate heat better than most living things. But. Oh, wait—I remember what I was going to ask, now. Dumb question. Do foxes mate for life?"

Kurama has been listening to her babbling half-assedly, wondering at whether or would be better or worse if she were not talking when the fairly randomness of the question as to whether or not foxes mated for life caught his attention. He chuckles a little. "My race or the foxes you know of in the Ningenkai?" he asks, smiling. He looks proud, sort of.

"Either or."

"In my case, or our cases, really, we do not exactly mate for life, but we do not abandon the female after mating. I believe that foxes of the Ningenkai are the same. The bond is there, and the male will often stay to take care of the vixen and the young for a time, but most males know that it is better to not interact too often with a mother or her kits. It's an unwise move and usually ends in at least a firm bite to the neck. Most time, or, at least in my case in my youth, one will keep his preferred mate close to him, either by staying with her in a shared den or by creating his own den near hers."

"So... You've had mates before?"

"They were more like girlfriends. I have not actually wanted a true mate, I found them hindering."

"Any kids of yours running around? Mini-Kuramas?"

"Our mating season is once every fifty years, and we will find our mates well in advance, usually ten years in advance at the minimum. I wasn't interested in young, so I often vanished during mating season, or I would make myself the second male in her life—don't think of it that way, it isn't that uncommon and is perfectly acceptable. I just had other interests."

"Out conquering the men?" she jokes.

"Those jokes are not funny, no matter how many you make or how clever they are. No, I was just very easily distracted by shinier things than a female in heat," Kurama answers hotly with an annoyed look. Every time Me'ran's thought Kurama's hot when he's pissed off is doubled over by how hot he is in this form. However, the last statement is what inspires her next giggle.

"Wow, man, I could turn that perverted soooo many ways," she giggles maniacally.

* * *

After a while, Me'ran feels the temperature begin to drop, and she has Kurama put her down so she can put her keigoki back on. The cold is somewhat invigorating, and it feels much better than the heat did. Her dry mouth and throat are a little less burned by the colder air.

"It's already getting cold. Set up camp," Kurama orders. The ground under his feet is firmer than the surrounding sand, so it's the right place to set up camp.

Me'ran helped, last night, but this time, she doesn't. She just sits down on the still-hot sand, and she lets her keigoki stay open long enough to cool her down to the point of shivering, before she goes into one of the two tents set up. Riki, Me'ran, and Kurama in one, and the siblings and Zenji pile into the other. She curls into a ball in a corner by herself, but Kurama pulls her closer to him. He's cold enough to be shivering. He's got chill bumps over his white arms and he's got his feet pulled up so the fur of his tail is covering them, and his hair is decorating his shoulders, held over him almost like he's trying to cover up with it.

"Foxes hibernate, don't they?" Me'ran asks him as he pulls her close to his chest, keeping his hands away from her, palms and fingers held off her skin, but holding his arms around her waist. She's beginning to regret letting herself cool off, because now she can't get warm and it feels like she's going to freeze to death. Fucking chills.

"No," he answers, moving his head so his chin is over her head.

"What the hell do you do during the cold season, then? You don't migrate. I knew about a set in town, and I saw the vix wandering in January," she mumbles.

"We try to eat and stay warm," he answers. He then picks his head up and puts his hand to her forehead. "You've got a fever."

"Yeah, I told you that. I've been doing this medical shit for months, now, and I'm still not sure why the hell you feel cold when your body's running a one hundred and two degree fever,," she answers irritably.

"Please sleep, you two. Or at least shut up so I can," Riki whines.

Me'ran smiles a little at Riki's whining, and Kurama chuckles, too. Then, in answer to it, both of them shut up, and Kurama pulls the human girl closer to him, one arm snug over her waist and the other arm folded up by her face and his hand under his own head, which is tucked firmly over hers. Kurama's cold arm against her cheek is comforting, a little, but only until it warms. She can feel a part of his bare chest over her back, which is just as cold as the rest of him. She realizes how close she is to him, and she wants to pull away, but he's cold, and it feels so good against her too-warm skin. She moves a little, though, to ease the discomfort of being pressed to him, and he moves as well, probably realizing how close he is as well. She can feel the muscles under his skin twitching with ungranted wishes to touch her, too. She can practically smell that he wants to more than just hold her, but he tames himself. She waits for a little while, but... I can trust him, she decides and she closes her eyes and sleeps.

* * *

The next morning, she has a hard time waking up.

"Am I dead?" she asks, surprised to find that her voice is almost totally gone. Her mouth is dry as hell, and her throat is scratchy, too, probably why her voice is gone.

"No, you're not," Kurama says at the same time she sighs annoyedly, "nope." Kurama laughs quietly, then pulls her out of the tent-thing and puts her on the ground.

"Can I walk, today?" she asks politely, but knowing full well she wouldn't be able to move of her own accord by the end of the day.

"No. Preserve what water you can," Kurama tells her. She sighs and fixes the keigoki around her again. Kurama helps take down the tent, and Riki puts it in his pack, and then Kurama stands up straight and looks a little past her. She looks up to see who he's looking at. Zenji.

"You're one that isn't playing pack mule--you carry her, today. Natsu carries her tomorrow."

"The hell do I have to carry her!?" the red-haired demon demands irritably, swinging 'round to look at Kurama indignantly. "She's so strong, what's she doing this weak anyway?"

"You're not as big as Natsu; he'll be able to carry her properly with one arm. I'd prefer she'd be able to get away if you have to put her down. She is this weak because, while she is strong for a human, she is still a human, and she has been forgoing her water share because she's not strong enough to live off what we can offer," Kurama snaps. His voice has gotten louder, bolder, more authoritative tones.

"Why wouldn't she be able to get away from Natsu?" Zenjirou whines, now, but quieter.

"That's not the point--she won't be able to run anywhere tomorrow. If she moves at all, it will be freak chance. I'm not making Natsu carry her today and tomorrow, it isn't fair, but I need him to carry her tomorrow."

"Didn't I ask you to not talk about me like I'm not here?" Me'ran hisses at Kurama as she drags herself upright. He hears her clearly, despite the wretched remnants of voice box being very uncooperative. She puts her hand to her throat, and she realizes how dry the skin is. Kurama looks at her and kneels to get a better look. When she turns her gaze to him, she sees his lips pull into a scowlish wince. She slaps her hand into the sand angrily and flops onto her back. "Fuck this, man, I hope I pass out soon," she rasps irritably. Zenji looks down at her and looks displeased. She's astounded at the fact that this could even be close to affection.

"Get up, Human," he spits after a few minutes of the pair staring at each other.

"My name's Me'ran," she answers.

"Get up anyway."

She growls a little, then stands up and holds her ground for a second. Then she begins to black out and get dizzy, and her limbs go mushy and weak and she starts to fall back down. Zenjirou catches her and scoops her up into his arms, making a displeased growling noise. "Goddamned human, don't see why we had to carry a fucking human with us."

"She's not even taking water anymore," Naoko barks. "Stop bitching and just carry her. She probably weighs half of what Riki and I are carrying."

The red-haired demon shifts Me'ran in his arms. She starts trying to adjust her keigoki, and she's having trouble, so he helps her after a second, covering her face with the sleeves, initially, before he pulls them back up to look at her face. He's startled to see the clear blue eyes staring straight up at him.

"What kind of demon are you?" she asks him kindly, trying to make conversation and hoping to ground herself. She's still so dizzy that she can't even focus on his face.

"What the hell does that matter?" he snaps unhappily.

"Just wondering," she says with a smile. His face comes into focus. He looks uncomfortable and uneasy, looking down at her.

He grunts his response after a second. "Fox demon."

"Like Kurama?" she asks, not giving him the silence he wants. She's almost upset at the selfishness, but she doesn't want to pass out.

"Less of a spirit fox. Different kind of fox demon. His kind is rarer, breed less often, don't live as long," he clarifies.

"Ah," Me'ran says with a nod.

She's silent, now, and he puts the sleeve back over her face. She curls into his chest and lets herself sleep. A few times, she wakes up, but nothing's changed except the amount of light leaking through her keigoki. The position of the sleeve has changed each time. She wonders if it's her doing or Zenji's.

"The hell is this trip for, anyway?" Zenji asks suddenly. Me'ran was in the half-stage between awake and asleep, but as soon as he speaks, she comes around.

"Ask the one who commissioned it," Kurama answers. "If she ever wakes up again," he adds darkly.

"Shut up, Kurama, you know it takes more than this to take me out," she snaps. At first, her voice didn't work so well, but then she gets it up a little better, having to use more air than normal to get it past the rasp. "And I did not commission this trip." She has to try a second, but her arm eventually obeys her and lets her pull the sleeve off her face. "I just threatened to hurt the hell out of you."

"I think missing my eyes and tongue would be beyond 'hurt' and would be up to 'damaged' or 'crippled'," Kurama chuckles. He sounds relieved, and as he moves back in the line to walk next to the human girl and Zenjirou, she can see the blend of relief and worry in his face.

"Shut up, you offered. It was the only way you could think to appease me," Me'ran says mock-grouchily, smiling up at him.

"Why are we on the mission?" Zenji growls to the two of them, unhappy at their little pickings at one another.

"Oh, right, right," Me'ran mutters. "Rescuing my lover."

"Your lover? The hell are we doing this for you?" he demands, glaring at Kurama, as if it was his fault.

"Because you all owe me, except Riki, who owes her. And I owe her," Kurama answers.

"The fuck kind of service could a human too weak to hold her own after a day without water offer a demon legend?" Zenji demands, sounding less angry and more confused, but still angry. He adds as a growl under his breath, "Outside what a female can offer, and that's already been eliminated."

A second voice comes from behind the three of them, a soft male voice, the taller-than-Kurama male, Naoko's brother Natsu, "Actually, Youko Kurama-sama, I was wondering the same thing. What could she have done for you that you're willing to carry her to Ariseki and back?"

Riki speaks up in the human's defense. "She's a healer! A good one, too! It's how she was able to take you out so efficiently, Zenjirou. She's saved my ass four times already. And you guys are being real ungrateful to someone who's stopped takin' water out here to help us!"

"As Riki says," Kurama agrees. "My human form is more fragile than this one, and I've required her help a few times. In addition to that, she's risked herself to keep me safe a few times as well."

"When was that?" Me'ran asks dumbly, not remembering endangering herself.

"Once was when Leo was about to shoot me, remember? You can't have forgotten--I can still smell the blood on you from that."

"Oh, yeah. Thbbt, it's not like it was any risk to me. How much longer is it gonna take to get there?"

"Tomorrow is the last day of our hike," Kurama says, but he still looks a little distracted by something. She sees that and scowls, but doesn't say anything.

"Ah, good," she mutters, turning her head into Zenji's chest.

"Me'ran?" Kurama asks concernedly.

She pats the air with a soft motion of her hand to settle him, then moves the sleeve back over her face. "Don't worry about me, dumbass, I'm just tired, so I'm gonna take a nap." She begins dreaming again, and she falls back to sleep.

* * *

When Me'ran wakes back up, it's nighttime. She's lying on the ground on her side, and the wind's stirring. It's freezing fucking cold out, too. She looks up. There are clouds overhead. She looks up.

"Is it going to rain?" she asks no one. Well, she was intending to ask someone, but the hiss of a voice that she almost doesn't recognize as hers kind of changes her mind for her.

"Rain?" someone else asks. Kurama.

"Clouds," she points out. "I might be closer to the end than I thought."

"I hope not," Kurama mumbles worriedly.

"Nah, nah, nah, I'm okay, I'm still lucid and everything." She looks up at him and smiles to let him know she's okay, and then she points at the clouds. "If it rains tonight, it's going to be freaking cold. Might even snow."

"Maybe it'll break the fever?" Kurama asks, kneeling next to her and putting his chilled hand to her forehead.

"Maybe," she answers. "Are you guys done?"

"Mm."

It takes her a second to get her body to obey her when she wants to stand up, but she gets to her feet. The blood rushes to her head, and she gets dizzy. "I hope it rains," she mutters. "I could use it."

"We'll see," Kurama answers uneasily. "It'll be rain or an oasis."

"Mm."

She falls into the tent they're sleeping in and moves so Kurama can get in, and drags herself 'til he can pull her to him to warm and cool each other and she's out in a matter of minutes.


	55. Desert Rain

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

* * *

_Desert Rain_

In the morning, Me'ran feels someone start pushing and pulling at her. Her limbs are heavier than they were yesterday, and she can't will them to move. It's like her body being asleep, only without the numb.

"She's unconscious," someone reports.

She tries to talk to correct them, but all she can do is grunt in a half-there creak of a voice. "_Mngt_," she argues, attempting to say "I'm not" in English, but it didn't turn out so well.

"I think she said she wasn't," Kurama says with a weak laugh. She knows that kind of laugh. It's one she gives when someone really, really wounded makes a joke. She hates that laugh. People that are dying usually get that laugh. At least Me'ran gets the benefit of being the one that can heal it, make it better. Poor Kurama doesn't even get that little comfort, does he? He just has to sit back and hope she doesn't die. Again. Kurama interrupts her train of thought."Natsu?"

"Sir?"

"Your turn."

Kurama pulls her closer to him, kneeling behind her so she can lean on his knee and shoulder as he puts her arms into the keigoki and tightens the belt. She wants to touch him back, give him a little reassurance or comfort or something, but the most she gets is a brush of the hand while he was moving her arm for her. He uses the sleeves to wrap around her again, protecting her face from the sun, then picks her up and hands her off.

"G-mn," she mutters to the one holding her, attempting to say "gomen".

"Youko, sir?" Natsu calls politely.

"Hm," Kurama answers with a cold grunt. He's worried.

"Are you sure...?"

"She's had worse," is the response. He sounds so cold, now, compared to the false laugh before. She notices that they hold him in higher esteem than she does. Hiei did say he was a legend...

"Are you sure?" Natsu asks.

"She brought it on herself," he answers. His voice alone sends proverbial chills down her spine, but Natsu seems unaffected, and he looks down at the human girl, moving the sleeve of the keigoki away from one of her eyes.

"Did you ask him to do this?"

She tries to answer, but she doesn't feel like it, and she just grunts. He nods, as if understanding.

* * *

Seeing her like this is almost painful. Her eyes have gotten dark and sunken in, and her skin has grown taut over her muscles and bones, and even her stomach has shrunk a little. The shortage of water for a human... Kurama's wondering if, perhaps, the fates have it in for her--this is such an uncommon, unforgivable mistake. Every time he looks at her, now, he wonders what pain she's in, again, and she is silently angry at himself for letting her do this.

While he's thinking about it--She does this for Hiei. He hates to admit it, but he's jealous of Hiei. That bastard. He doesn't deserve such a self-sacrificial saint. He needs one, but he doesn't deserve it. He'd better at least treat her well. Kurama swears to himself at this moment that if he ever finds Hiei's laid his hand on her, Kurama will teach him why people fear him so much. He wishes Hiei could see her like this, just so it could get it through his skull that, no, he really doesn't deserve her. She suffers so much for him and doesn't even think about it...

Looking back at them, Natsu seems concerned, almost moreso than Zenjirou. He's almost amused by how easily liked she is, especially when she's so easy to be angry with.

But then again, it's hard to be cold toward such a kindhearted young woman, especially when she's allowing herself to practically die to spare them the expense of water loss.

"Youko-sama?" Natsu asks again.

"What is it?" That, however, gets old. They keep asking about her. As if it hasn't gotten through their thickened skulls that she can't die.

"I think she might be awake and trying to say something, but I don't understand it."

"Sleep talker. Ignore it."

Dammit, though, that's frustrating. He supposes it's to be expected, especially since they don't know how much he's worried, now. He feels his tail twitching with anticipation, and he's waiting to hear the pained whimpers of someone dying like this. Already, her breath is thick, and when she tries to talk, he can tell her tongue is swollen.

"Youko-sama?" Naoko asks. His temper wills him to snap at the demon woman, possibly even get the others off his back at the same time, but he doesn't.

"Yes?"

"Water?" she offers, holding out a cup. "And should I give any to the human?"

"No, and no," he mutters, shaking his head and letting his bangs fall over his eyes. He's half afraid she'll be able to look into them. Women always did bother him that way.

He's almost completely taken in by his fears and thoughts. He normally doesn't allow this, but anyone that can and will attack him out here will not be able to sneak up on him. He has four other demons that can fight and will alert him to whatever danger, even if he wasn't in the middle of a desert that is attempting to kill an almost-immortal. So he lets himself get wrapped up in his thoughts. In fact, he's allowed being wrapped up so close to completely that he hardly notices the slight wind that picks up, and the cooler air that is the shade provided by the clouds. A scarf is handed to him, and he realizes the others have already gotten their mouths and noses covered, and Naoko and Riki even cover their eyes with a thin fabric. The wind starts picking up rather violently, and he picks it up over his eyes as well, and shifts his pace to one in front of the other to keep his way. It's hard, moving through the swiftly moving sand, and his feet sink up to his knees in every time he puts them down.

Almost the whole surrounding area is darker from the cloud-provided shade. And then he feels the water droplets, shortly after the wind dies down, and he pulls the scarf off and shakes the sand out of his hair. He looks back at the party. All four of them are staring at the sky, and Natsu's already pulled Me'ran's keigoki's sleeve off her face. She turns her head, but Kurama can tell she's not conscious, yet.

"Me'ran?" he calls softly.

"Hmm," she answers half-heartedly.

"It's raining."

"Yuh."

And Kurama breathes again and he smiles.

* * *

Me'ran wakes up when she feels cool(er) air on her face and something wet touches her lips. She turns her head to where the water came from, hardly aware of the action, though she remembers taking it.

"Me'ran?"

"Hmm."

"It's raining."

"Yuh."

"We're going to leave the sleeve off your head, and stop to collect water. Do you mind being put down?"

"Go 'head."

She feels the ground under her back. The water's almost painful, but she smiles anyway. The water landing in her mouth isn't enough to swallow, but it ends the dryness in her throat. She suddenly remembers, realizes what's going on--Rain, desert, dying, water, water, water! Her eyes shoot open and she stares at the cloudy sky and she tries to giggle with the hoarse remains of her voice.

"Rain in the desert?" Zenji asks skeptically.

"Told you I can't die," she answers hoarsely as she sits up slowly. Her usually powerful muscles are much weaker than she's used to, and it seems to take an enormous amount of effort to even prop herself up. "Someone hand me some water?"

"In a minute, Me'ran," answers Kurama's pleased tones. His tail's almost wagging, she can see.

"Kay," she sighs, lying back down and letting the rain hit her face.

Kurama kneels over her after a short time passes. She looks up at him, and he shows her an almost sickeningly bitter smile.

"Hi," she says hoarsely.

"Thank you," he says. For a second, the gold eyes look almost exactly like the green ones she's so used to having gaze at her. The look on his face reminds her of when she got shot all those times. Relief and horror.

"Thank you...?" she asks in question, suddenly realizing what he'd said. "For what?"

"Risking yourself again," he says patiently. One long pale hand reaches and brushes the hair that tumbled into her face out of the way.

"Huh?" she asks slowly. She doesn't feel good; it's getting harder to think. That, and his motions and what thought he inspires drowns out whatever thoughts of reactions.

"You made it rain where it shouldn't. I think this desert's seen rain once in the last four thousand years."

"The less likely it is to happen, the more likely it is to save us. New swords break, our hearts move, it rains in the desert, a hundred bullets will miss..."

He laughs a little, and she licks her chapped lips, which finally works, and she lets her dried out skin take in the water. Someone passes her some water, and she drinks it, being careful, but Kurama pats her shoulder.

"It'll probably continue raining for a bit, don't worry about it. We've only got today left, and we had enough water for the return journey."

She nods happily, and she keeps drinking until she thinks she's going to be sick, and she passes off the canteen to be filled again. They're using some sort of funnel to catch the water.

"Cool," she mutters. Kurama nods.

"Are we ready?"

"Yes, sir," someone says.

"Are you strong enough to walk?"

"Yeah," she says, standing up before promptly falling back down. "No."

He laughs a little when he scoops her back into his arms before shifting her onto his back.

"The rain is certainly a relief. It's a miracle the wind didn't blow the sand everywhere. We had only a little trouble, and that was easily remedied with a few scarves."

"Cool," she says, with a grin. She looks up and sees that the rock face that she half-remembers seeing as a distant speck has grown considerably. "Is that where we're going?"

"Close. There's a city carved into the walls of the cliff. We're going into it," Kurama states simply from behind her.

"And who's running it? Why'd they take Hiei?"

"I don't know why, but the proprietor is a gnomish demon. He's not very strong, but he doesn't rule with power. I think he came from a noble family a few centuries ago. I robbed him once, actually, but the treasure was hardly worth the trip. I nearly lost three of my more loyal companions. He rules with charisma and money. The ones that like him are willing to go to the ends of the earth for him, much like the way you could do things."

"Yeah, except I like people, and I don't like being a leader."

"Exactly."

"Why'd he take Hiei?"

"There are some rumors going around, what few people heard anything at all. I even heard a few times that he's in love with Hiei. More say he's getting revenge for something in his history, probably a familiar murder--familiar in the sense of family--and a few are talking about a lover they shared, or share, and then a few suggested that they made an agreement and Hiei refused to keep his end of the bargain--but that doesn't sound very Hiei, to me."

"Huh?"

"He's a very honorable demon. I think. He has a rather complicated system of a code, but rarely does he ever go back on an agreement. When asked for help from someone that trusts him… Sometimes…. he will offer it."

"Even if it kills them," she says with a smile. "Let me try walking."

He lets her down and supports her with his hands over her shoulders. The wettish, straggly hair hangs down over her face and touches at her chin. The shade of the cliffs is stretched out over the sand that she's approaching. She can support her own weight, now, at least.

"It will be perilous in the city. You're a decent enough bandit to have Hiei want you around. You can roof hop, yes?" Kurama asks, confirming.

"Yeah."

"And you can fight efficiently enough, I've seen that. Do you want another day to recover?"

"No."

"Do not be hasty. A move made too quick to save him may be more damaging than good. Can you do it in your condition?"

She tests it out and jumps over Kurama's head to his other side, then leaps back to the back of the caravan, then back to her original position. The sand made it a little harder, and the kick-off from the back sucked, but she's here.

"I'm fine."

He smiles. "You've been getting better. It's only been a few months since we brought you to help us and already you match our skill. Not our strength, speed, or agility, but certainly our skill."

"Thank you." She promptly puts her head down and leans on her knees to catch her breath. "Okay, so I'm not done recovering."

"Do we need to wait?" Kurama asks, concernedly.

"I'm not going to wait anymore than I have to," Me'ran says quickly, giving him a look to warn him that she means it.

"Please keep in mind that you have irrational tendencies when it comes to helping people, which happen to include allowing yourself to be shot a hundred times and allowing yourself to nearly die of dehydration, and give yourself another day."

"No. We've got the rest of today to get there, right?"

"Yes."

"I'll be done recovering by the time I get there."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."


	56. Ariseki

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

* * *

_Ariseki_

It's dark, now, and she's helping Riki and Naoko set up camp. Kurama's briefing her on what little he knows.

"I had to pull a few strings to find out what I did--the castle's furthest back in the rock, and, indeed, is most of the inside of the mesa. It looks more like an ant hill's tunnels."

"Where do we go to find him?" she asks, now.

"Very, very back, and at the bottom are the typical prisons. Prevents escape, you see," he says conversationally. She's beginning to think he's scared, or he thinks she is. His tones are too light, and he doesn't sound nearly as serious as someone about to storm a castle should.

"Reminds me--how the hell are they keeping him anyway?" she asks. "There's no way Hiei could be kept here for very long without something really wrong with him, and he's fast enough that he could make it out of here before he croaked."

"I'm not sure how they're doing it. There is almost definitely a means of incapacitating him, which is why I was concerned about how she would react when you found him, but I'm not sure what that is, or what it could be," he says, looking her in the face. Now he sounds serious again. She feels better now, and she looks out over the city and starts to pick out where she will be able to jump.

"Are we ready?" she asks, eager to get a move on. Kurama pats the human girl's shoulder.

"No. Wait," he says after a second. He looks at Zenji and Natsu and he exchanges words with them. His voice is so low that she can hardly hear, but she strains her ears anyway.

"Need you... go with... but don't be ob... and stay out of our way... If you get... I'll let... ... ... ... and you have no idea... ... Remember that."

He returns to her side and braces himself on the rock she's perched on. "Now we're ready," he tells her. "Are you ready?"

"Yep. What did you threaten them with?" Me'ran asks first, glaring at him. "Just because I ain't a demon doesn't mean I'm deaf."

"Your wrath," Kurama says after a second. "I wish your strengths and weaknesses were more proportionate. Not even a day in the desert incapacitated you and you still have hearing to counter my own."

"Under what condition?" she presses, ignoring his second statement. "Why would I be mad at them?"

"If they get us caught before we complete our objective, I have a feeling that I would be able to see your aura from the other side of the desert."

"You think I could hurt them?" she asks, surprised. "You know I'm not that cruel, whether or not I'd be pissed."

"No, but they know how easily you can damage other people, and they know how hard you are to incapacitate, and that's all we need to threaten them," Kurama responds with a cold smile.

"I'm easy to incapacitate. Just hard to kill," she corrects him.

"Unfortunately, that is usually the aim when one is attempting to incapacitate someone," he points out. "Also, do you remember when Hiei hit you to knock you out and failed?"

The mention of Hiei starts a whole new fire in her blood and she starts bouncing in place. "Fair point. Enough chat, I wanna help my boyfriend. Let's go!"

* * *

With that, Me'ran and Kurama and the other two start roof hopping.

"Do they have their own agenda?" Me'ran asks while she and Kurama are neck and neck, running alongside one another. The other two are hanging back, but she's not sure why, and she was going to leave that factoid alone.

"What?" he asks, surprised tones in his voice.

"Are they here just to help us?" she asks more insistently.

"Yes and no," he says after a second. "Wise to catch onto this."

"What're they doing?" she presses, looking at him and nearly falling for taking her eyes off her feet's goals.

"They have their own agenda, but they formed it because I told them we were coming here. They are to help us first, and themselves second, else I'm going to show them my displeasure, and let them find out what you look like when you're angry. Which, by the way, I've only seen once, and is quite beautiful and frightening."

"What do they owe you?" she asks, now. "You're collecting debts, putting them in your service."

"They owe me service. In Demon World, favors are as good as currency." Then, as an afterthought, he adds, "To some."

"And the rest?" she asks with a small smile and laugh, despite knowing the answer already.

"To the rest, favors are more like openings for attack. I believe you've experienced both ends of this," he says, tracing a scar in her hair with one long pale finger. The one that bastard with the axe gave her during her second trip to the Makai.

She's about to say something else, but then Kurama grabs her hand and throws her a little farther than she was going to make it on her own, and he uses the momentum to send him back to the roof she jumped off of. She lands clumsily and wonders why he did that for a second, but then she notices how close to the edge she is. She turns to face him, waiting for him to return, but he's got his whip in his hand.

She hits him in the back of the head with a rock she throws. He looks at her, then gestures "go on" with his arm. She gets going.

As she runs, she feels a surge of ki that she recognizes as Zenji's. She turns on her toes and starts back, but on the way, a long thin hand wraps around her wrist. She turns and slugs the owner of the hand, but when he lets go, she sees Kurama looking imploringly at her. What--How did he get there?!

"He can handle it," he assures Me'ran softly, taking her hand and guiding her to start moving again. "Go. Don't get caught."

"We're in more danger than I know, huh," she whispers, realizing that, yes, he was scared, earlier, and he's even more scared, now, and that odds are all of them are, essentially, screwed.

"I thought it best you didn't know," he tells her. "I was sure you'd caught it before we started, but you didn't hesitate. Don't worry about us--they don't kill those they capture. Let us fight for ourselves, but you keep going. If you come back, they'll catch you, too, and this will all be for naught. Go. Now!"

He pushes her, almost sending her over the edge of the roof. She turns on her toes and kicks off and lands on the next roof clumsily. She keeps running.

She keeps feeling surges of youki from her companions. She wants to turn around, but she keeps thinking about the greater good of the mission--She stays free, she can help them, later. Caught means even more problems.

Maybe he intended to get caught the whole time? Which ones will they catch? She's never seen Natsu fight, but he looked like he could hold his own at ten feet tall and muscle-bound. Of course, looks can be deceiving--she doesn't look like she could fight at all, after all.

"Think about getting there. And sneaking around. I need help. Yes. Shut up."

"Are you talking to yourself?" Natsu asks curiously. She's so surprised that her feet catch and she falls flat on her face. She begins to cry out, but he puts his hand over her mouth and picks her up and keeps running.

"Kurama told me to run ahead. He and Zenjirou are fighting. They intend to get caught. He sent me ahead because he knows you'll need help. You're no thief."

"Too true, too true," she agrees. The roofs end. He slides to a halt on the edge and puts down the frightened human girl. The two of them look at the new wall in front of her, riddled with little window holes--potential doors.

"Which one?" Me'ran asks him. He shrugs.

"I don't know this place, either. Let's pick one I can fit through."

She looks him up and down and smirks. "Even if you're too tall, you're about as big around as my leg. What are you worried about?" she mocks, trying to pick her spirits up.

"Nothing, really," he answers with a smile, then shrugs.

She drops to the ground and jumps through the highest window she can get to. He follows. Then she looks around.

"Alright, now--I have a really bad sense of where I'm going. I've been lost miserably several times," she tells him, pleased to see that no one's around.

"He said that if you manage to run long enough, you get where you're going," Natsu answers, obviously talking about Kurama.

"Yeah, okay. You trust that?" she inquires with a laugh.

"More than I do my own habit of getting miserably lost and winding up half-dead," he breathes to her, touching lightly at her shoulder and pushing her to get her started.

She nods firmly. "Alright, I'll buy that..." and then start running again. He follows closely.

She finds her way to a stairwell going down. She goes down. Then she gets as low as she can and has to go find another stairwell. Twice, she and he have to freeze and run the other way, before they're seen. Twice they are seen, but they knock the ones that saw them out before they have a chance to cry out.

"This isn't working," Me'ran sighs after forever of being lost.

She feels a surge of Kurama's youki. She starts for it. Downstairs, right, left, right, right, downstairs, left, right, left, left, left (why not just freaking right the first time?) straight, down more stairs-

She stops and gets a knee in the back from Natsu, who grabs her shoulders as she starts to fall. He pats her shoulders as an apology, and she watches as Kurama and Zenji are being lead down the same flight Natsu and she are on. They stay very still until the guards leading Kurama and Zenjirou turn the corner. They follow up to the corner and watch as they continue going down.

Natsu and Me'ran follow them all the way to the prison. Kurama and Zenji are warned about being interrogated, later, and Me'ran wants to hear more, but Natsu grabs her arm and pulls her up the stairs and leads her up until she gets somewhere she can hide.


	57. Finding Him

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also. I'm writing a Kurama story. For a change. And I don't know what I want to do with the poor bastard. I already have my Sue set up for that one, and I like her ((she's nearly an anti-Sue)), but I don't know what storyline I want. Help!

-R.F.

_Finding Him_

They return to the dungeons after Natsu's sure it's safe. There are guards next to the door, now. She takes them out quickly, then takes the keys from the one and opens the door. There are several demons lined up in cells along the way. She wants to unlock them, but that would cause problems. So, instead, she goes straight for the cell Kurama's in.

"You didn't let everyone else out?" Kurama asks curiously. He's got his hands chained behind his back, as has Zenjirou. Zenji looks resentfully at Me'ran and Natsu. She looks at the key ring and starts trying keys in his cell door.

"If everyone came running out, it would cause problems," she explains as she works, "We can let them out after we get done, and then we can get out during the mayhem."

"That will be risking them."

"They don't want to be in here, do they?"

"We're in the middle of the desert. I think they'd prefer to die in here due to abuse and neglect than take three days to die a miserable death in the sun and desert due to dehydration or heat," Kurama points out. Me'ran doesn't say anything in response, but she thinks about it as she struggles to find the key. Ah! This one unlocks the cell, then Me'ran locks it back.

"I know what that's like. It's not that bad. You stay unconscious and half-delirious for the last bits of it, and the physical pain is pretty much lost on you," Me'ran says lightly. She breaks the key for his cell off the ring. "Come here, Kurama," she commands. He moves closer to her, obviously knowing what she's planning. He lets her tuck the key to his cell into a fold of his belt.

"We'll ask them later. Do you know where Hiei is?"

"No."

"Go find him. I'll leave my cell locked."

"Why?"

"I don't want them to suspect anything."

"Alright, agreed," she says, turning on her toes. Natsu follows her.

Me'ran wanders the dungeons for a while. She's surprised at the lack of guards, here. She keeps looking, but she doesn't see him. She goes down a flight of stairs. The guards aren't surprised until she gets into their light, and they start to attack, but Natsu takes one and Me'ran puts the other on the ground quickly. She goes through the door they were blocking off. The demons here are louder, more ill behaved. She gets through, and she's pressed to the wall by invisible hands, and she feels flares of youki all around her. The smell of decay and shit and piss in here is strong enough to gag even her usually dull sense of smell. Natsu goes silent and puts his hand to his face, too, but he stays quiet.

"Hiei!" Me'ran calls desperately, not strong enough to fight the invisible hold on her.

No answer, but they stop. The one pressing her to the wall releases her and she nearly falls down. One demon looks at her through the food flap in his door.

"A human?" he snorts derisively. "What do you want with poor little Hiei?"

"The hell happened to him?" she asks, moving to his window, but keeping a safe distance from it. Fear starts to edge into her, and she feels her heart beating in her throat.

"Oh, they showed him a good time," someone else snorts. "He's not here no more. Dunno what happened. Prolly killed him. Or that fuckin' fag of a midget rulin' us is keepin' him for his perverted collection. Good prize--fucker nearly killed everyone in here and he was two levels down!"

Me'ran only just feels the keys leaving her hand, and Natsu's no longer there. Then Me'ran feels the power behind her, and she whirls around and faces the opening door. She's frozen--she can't move. She tries, but it's like her feet are stuck to the floor, and her knees are locked. Even if she did move, there's too much risk that she'd lead them right to wherever Natsu was hiding, so she has no choice but to let herself be caught.

A gnarled, scarred face meets hers way too closely as he comes inside and closes the door. She chokes on her fear a second, but she doesn't move. The whole dungeon has gone silent.

"I see... Who were you hoping to find in this raid?" he asks mockingly, already moving close to her and blocking off any escape past him with his huge body. She has nowhere to run, she realizes.

"She wants to see the Jaganshi!" someone crows from inside her cell. The man smirks in such a way that she's even more scared for Hiei, but then he moves closer to her and wraps one gigantic arm around her comparatively narrow shoulders, putting one arm in a grip and pinning the other to her side with his broad side.

"I see," he says again. "Well, young woman, I'm impressed. Did you come all this way without the help of your little foxy friends?" He pauses, looking at her confusedly. "A heartbeat?" he laughs, then takes a very loud, disgusting whiff of the air, smelling her noisily. "A human!" he exclaims surprisedly, all confusion gone, leaving him with a frighteningly gleeful look on his face. "And you managed to get all this way?"

"Let me go," she commands fearlessly, she hopes. Her voice betrays her and wavers. The big demon doesn't do as she commands, however. Instead, she feels shackles close around her wrists so tightly that it shifts the bones. It hurts to even turn her arm. She shows no sign of pain, though. Contrary to what she expects, he doesn't look even remotely daunted by this. In fact, he looks pleased.

"Good to know I get another tough one," he growls with a bright smile. Or what is supposed to be a bright smile, Me'ran guesses--it looks more like a snarl and a manic grin. "I think I'll have some fun with this."

"Take me to Hiei," she orders sharply, now, pleading with her own body to calm the fuck down, or at least not piss herself. Her fear has her heart pounding against her ribcage, but this is her one chance... "I want to see him."

A pair of shackles appear on her ankles, too. Or maybe they were there from the start and she didn't notice. They're not as tight, but the chain between her ankles is short--almost too short to even walk properly.

"Come with me, then," he says cheerfully. "Where are the keys you used to get into these doors?"

"I threw them," she lies. "I didn't see where they landed. Someone probably picked 'em up by now."

"Just as well."

Me'ran gets a better look at him as they leave this dungeon. There are three more guards outside the door. The man jerks his thumb at the door. "Search the cells for the first floor keys. Careful," he warns and heads into better light. He's a head taller than Me'ran, and a pretty big man. Huge, for that matter. His arms are as big as she is, and his legs twice that. Reminds her of The Thing. He's old, from what she can see. Real old. He's bald, and his face is wrinkled and gnarled like an old tree. Scars mar the wrinkles, too, giving his face an in-demon ((Well, I couldn't well say "inhuman")) look, too. His skin's kind of blue-green and his eyes are so dark brown she thought they were black. He doesn't have ears.

"Me'ran!" Kurama cries as he sees her walk past him.

"I'm okay," she tells him quickly. "What's the worst he could do?"

"You know well what the worst he could do is. At least fight!" he hisses. Me'ran can hear from his tones that he's distressed, but she has no intention of appeasing this yet.

"I know what I'm doing," she tells him easily. She stops moving to look him in the face, trying to use her facial expression to get him to relax. He hesitates, then looks around, realizing that Natsu isn't caught. He still looks pissed off, but he settles back onto his knees.

"You know you're not strong enough!" he whispers urgently. "Your body isn't strong enough to take any sort of punishment right now! You know that!"

"But they don't, and I'm a good actress!" she whispers back.

"Not to people that can hear how your voice strains! Please, just listen to your common sense for once!"

"No," she answers defiantly. I know what I'm doing, she tells herself.

"Come, Human, before I get annoyed with waiting for you," the big ugly thing demands.

Me'ran's led through the door out of the dungeon, and up some stairs, through a series of the hallways, up a lot more stairs, through more hallways. She starts recognizing that they're not even really going anywhere. He's just trying to confuse her.

"It's like spinning a blindfolded man around," she says quietly. She intends to get him to give something away.

"What?"

"You're leading me in all kinds of circles to throw me off."

"Of course I am! I'm taking you to see the man you want to see! I can't very well lead you straight from the dungeon to the throne room!"

The strangeness of this statement is lost on her for a second. "Why is Hiei in the throne room?" she asks, realizing that prisoners do not belong in throne rooms. The fuck?

"Oh, you're gonna love this," he answers with that fucked-up smile on his face again.

Me'ran can't remember how to get back to the dungeon, she finally realizes after the seventh hundredth turn. Damn.

"I'm hoping I'll get to question you and your fox friends at once. I saw how that one cared for you. It's so easy to get someone to talk when his... are you lovers? Oh. What relation is the Jaganshi to you? Why is a human after him?" the big guy asks in friendly, conversational tones. She looks up at him, eyes wide, but then blinks dumbly and puts her poker face back on.

"None of your goddamned business," she spits to him. He gives a roar of laughter and punches Me'ran in the arm. Her feet clear the floor and she bounces off the wall and hits the floor, unable to keep her feet. The place where his fist hit her shoulder aches, but not as much as her head and shoulder do from hitting the wall. He picks her up by the back of the keigoki and plops her back on her feet. She keeps walking, being completely silent and not letting him know how much it hurt.

Instead of the rage she's so used to being inspired by her stubbornness, he seems delighted. "Ah, I can't wait to get my tools into you!" he says excitedly, nearly bouncing with joy. Me'ran decides distantly that there's a psychotic trait in him she appreciates, but that doesn't lessen the worm of fear eating at her stomach.

He kicks open a set of double doors, then kicks her hard enough for her feet to leave the ground. She lands on her feet and tries to stop, but she can't, and she staggers, and her feet get caught and she goes right down onto her chest. She hears laughing and has to pause to marvel at how she can be embarrassed even though she's likely to die--or suffer intense pain--in less than a few minutes.

But she gets onto her feet easily, sitting up and fixing her feet under her, and searches the room. It's quiet, right now. There's the throne, which is occupied by a very ugly doll, and the room is round, there are people sitting here and there, as if there was a dinner being held, the walls are painted, there are candelabras dangling from the ceiling and... And she sees Hiei, who is currently sitting, clothed in his black sleeveless shirt and pants and barefoot with his head down. He looks like he's sleeping with his back against the throne.

"Hiei!" she cries, starting for him. The big guy catches her cuffs and holds her still, then bows and forces her to do the same.

"My Lord--One of the Intruders of your kingdom. A human girl. She wants to see Hiei."

"You're that--" a familiar-ish voice begins before a loud thwacking sound cuts him short. She looks up, but whatever happened has already passed. A short, dark-skinned, black-haired, green-eyed demon with long pointed ears and knobby features stands up out of the throne. Oh, so that isn't a doll. Doesn't look much like a king. In fact, he looks like she could snap him over her knee. He kind of reminds her of Dobby, only with a more bulbous nose and he's a little better proportioned, and he's not wearing... anything Dobby wore (Though it is very easy to imagine him with a tea cozy on his head). He's clad in fancy dark olive green robes that contrast the deep blue-black skin well.

"She's the one?" he asks a demon with weird ears and a tail and four arms. The demon he spoke to grunts and nods. She looks at him more carefully, and then she recognizes him. He's the one that kidnapped Hiei in the first place. A rage that Me'ran's almost completely unfamiliar with consumes her. Where she would normally be calm and wait a second before attacking, mindful of her situation—she forgets this and she doesn't bother with restraint, she forgets all consequences. It's this mother fucker's fault that she's spent two days dying and a week before that in a despair so deep that she was considering hunting him down and literally turning him inside out.

"You fucker!" she shrieks before she can stop herself. She starts for him, too, but the big guy behind her picks her up and practically body slams her on her back, knocking all the wind out of her, then puts her back on her feet. She leans down and hacks and coughs.

The "Lord" moves toward Me'ran, and she sees something on his wrist, a chain. She wonders if he was once a slave or something, but then she sees the chain get tight, and Hiei falls sideways and sits up, as if he'd been sleeping and the...

"Come on," the "Lord" says, tugging at the chain insistently.

Hiei gets up and moves closer, and the chain goes slack as the distance between the holder of the leash and the collar get closer together. Me'ran feels her eyes grow wide as her heart decides to go cold in the depths of her chest. She's a combination of disgusted, horrified, and shocked, so much so that her weaker-than-she-realized body can't take it.

She hits her knees, and she feels herself begin to choke on a sob. No tears or runny nose, but that's the lack of water in her body, right now. It only takes a second before the overwhelming shock and pain for her lover become all out hate and rage. "What the hell have you done to him!?" she shrieks, overwhelmed by the rush of emotion. She lunges, but she's caught by the keigoki and held in the air. She twists and kicks madly, and her vision is obscured by the red surrounding her and heating her body so much that she feels like she's burning. She fights hard, kicking and twisting and trying to bite him, but he's got her keigoki pretty well. If it weren't for the sleeves and the way her wrists are chained, she'd fall out of it.

"He killed my mother and father, a few years back. I wanted to get him back," the ugly gnome doll thing answers. "The worst punishment for a prideful creature is, obviously, stripping him of his pride. I have done so." Me'ran, not wanting to hear it, screams in an attempt to drown him out. He keeps talking, and she sees a sick smile twist his face--he loves her reaction. He leans closer to her, standing on his tiptoes and turning up his head so she can better hear him. "It started out with his capture. Two days, he fought like a madman in a dungeon cell, putting burn marks all in the walls and the door. He fought so hard. Didn't sleep for days, nearly melted the sand and rock around him, and killed nearly thirty of my men before I could chain him onto the ground. We had to leave him there for a day before he passed out from exhaustion. All his fighting gave me long enough for me to get a potion created to strip him of his will. It was adorable; he kept calling a girl's name, possibly yours. It was easily the longest time I've ever seen someone take to lose himself. For that matter--is your name, oh, what was it… Me… Mer… Me'ran?"

Me'ran chokes on her own throat, and she manages to swing herself just right and lashes out with both feet, catching him in the face. He falls backwards and slides on his back. She waits for the repercussions and she isn't disappointed. She's forced onto the ground by the back of her neck, back into the bowing/groveling position, then the big thing takes a hold of her hair and draws her head back and plants a foot into the base of her spine at once, forcing her back to arch unnaturally, forcing her arms to straighten out and disabling her. The gnome fucker gets up after a second and laughs heartily.

"I see it is your name. I think you should know. His consciousness in still in there. He simply must obey my every command, now," the "Lord" sings with a maniacal grin on his face. Me'ran tries to get at him, but she's well held, now. Every move hurts.

"You sick fuck!" Me'ran shrieks. The reiki built in her is painfully hot, now, and she wants nothing more than to squeeze this bastard's throat until the gurgling stops and the blood flows. Then a slight motion from Hiei startles her. He's turned his head to face her. She looks up at him and sees that he's staring emptily. His eyes are hollow and the usual fire in them has vanished. It's more sickening than the gnome-bastard's smile. She stops fighting. She knows that she wants to cry, but she can't form tears. Her chest still chokes her, though.

"How cute, there's a love triangle," the man holding her mocks as lets her go. She keeps herself upright on her knees, but he drops his fist on her head and puts her on the floor and pins her down by putting his foot on her back. Hiei continues to stare at her, as does the "Lord".

"She's with the fox demons, yes?" the gnome thing asks the big guy. The big guy nods and nudges her with his foot.

"Doesn't matter who she's with. I know how to kill her."

"Kill? You don't want to question her, first?"

"I'd love to question her, real potential, shows a masochistic streak, don't she? But I've got a better idea. We can't leave her livin', now, can we? She's just human and she still kept herself outta trouble long enough to get to where Hiei was s'posed to be kept, now, didn't she? She needs to be killed before she starts causing more problems. We can get her friends to talk while we kill her, can't we?"

There's a long pause before the king-person responds with a gleeful, "Very well. How?"

"Simple, Lord Roshi--She loves him, don' she? Have him kill her."

A sick smile splits the "Lord"'s ugly face and he releases a manic giggle before he leans down to pet her head. She twists and growls and bites at him, but then the big guy brings a boot down on her head. It hurts really badly, but she recovers. Even though she's still conscious, she doesn't move. Maybe if she fakes unconsciousness, they'll keep talking over her...

"That sounds excellent! After dinner entertainment! And... To get the fox demons to talk, why they're here, how they got here, if there are any more... We can promise to call him off..." Roshi continues, playing with the idea for a few minutes.

The weight on Me'ran's bruised back shifts a little as the man laughs with way too much mirth for the conversation. "Great! After dinner entertainment? How soon can we go?"

"As soon as possible, of course, Kanaye! I think we can carry her and the Jaganshi down to the Arena, now, and I'll watch them until you can bring the foxes along to watch the show, hm? Don't we have a box just for that sort of thing, to let friends watch?"

"My favorite seats," Kanaye says excitedly. "Alright, agreed." And then it's over. The big guy scoops her up by the middle and puts her on his gigantic shoulder to carry her.

"Follow Kanaye, Hiei," the Lord Roshi person commands, returning to his throne.

Me'ran hears the dropping of a chain and light footsteps that sound so much like her lover's, but so different at the same time, and she's suddenly happy that she can't form tears.


	58. Helpless

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also. I'm writing a Kurama story. For a change. And I don't know what I want to do with the poor bastard. I already have my Sue set up for that one, and I like her ((she's nearly an anti-Sue)), but I don't know what storyline I want. Help!

-R.F.

* * *

_Helpless_

Me'ran's dropped onto a dirt floor, and Hiei's led in and he's commanded to sit against one wall. She lies on the floor limply, as good as dead. She can still move, and she knows she can, but she really doesn't want to. What's the use?

After a second, she feels her shackles being unlocked, and they're carried away. She stays still anyway.

It's quiet for a while, she hears a few guards around and Roshi comes in, singing obnoxiously cheerfully. She hears familiar footsteps, but she doesn't look at the source, knowing that one's Kurama and the other is probably Zenji.

"Me'ran!" Kurama calls urgently. "Get up! I know you're not dead, now get up!"

"I don't want to," Me'ran whimpers bleakly. She sits up on her knees anyway. Looking up and around her, she's reminded of a small coliseum, with an ovular arena that she and Hiei are resting in, and stadium seating up the sides. She thinks they're in the middle of the mesa. Hiei's still sitting by the wall, looking much like himself, other than the listless staring to one side. There's what looks like a prison cell, barred and closed with paper wards and seals, in one wall, in which Kurama and Zenjirou are sitting. Neither are wearing their chains, she notices. This offers what pretends to be hope for a second before it divebombs out of her with the empty feeling that there is about to be a painful beating inflicted in a short time.

The gnomish bastard stands at the head of the oval, close to Me'ran, but too high up for her to jump at him. He's leaning against the wall with his arms folded girlishly.

"You two fox demons? Can you hear me?" he calls gaily.

"Yes," Kurama spits.

"Good. Her suffering will end when you tell me how many you number and where you're hiding," he offers.

"We're it," Zenji says loudly, objecting. "Her, him, and me, that's all there was!"

"I know you couldn't have crossed that desert with only what you had among you. Not a canteen between you! Especially her, she would have died long ago! I've dried my share of humans in the sun; it takes them only a couple of days!"

"I'm not your average human," Me'ran spits, suddenly upset at his challenge to her strength. "I can make it rain."

"Doesn't matter, dear human, no amount of rain would have saved you from my desert. You're going to have to get your friends to talk, now, so save your strength for screaming for mercy, okay?" And with that, he sits down. "Hiei! Hurt her well!"

* * *

It happens so quickly that Kurama can't follow it. For a while, it's just flickers of motion, too fast for even his demon eyes to track. Every now and again, he'll see her on the ground, but that would soon be remedied by the black flicker of motion swooping down on her. It's quiet, though, strangely. Kurama'd expect cries of pain or something, but the only sounds he hears are Roshi giggling now and again, and nearly silent grunts out of her after a particularly harsh blow or Hiei in his effort to cause her pain.

"Hiei, slow down! I want to watch!" Roshi demands after a minute of the too-fast-to-see beating taking place.

Me'ran rolls on the ground with her bruised limbs flopping limply. Kurama can see her clearly for the first time in a time, and he can see what marks he's left on her--a bright pink mark on her cheekbone, and what have already become bruises on her upper chest, footprints all over her keigoki and bleeding lips from where he evidently punched her mouth. Hiei stands still a second and approaches her again. She makes no move to defend herself. He can see she's still alert and aware, but other than blocking and curling up and tucking her head down, she makes no move to stop him. She's taking this very easily. While her body is flopping like a corpse, she is still clearly in perfect control of herself. The strength goes unnoticed by anyone but himself.

Hiei stomps hard on her, three times, ribs, back, and head. She cringes, but Kurama sees where she's already weakened.

"Ouch," she whimpers through a loud cracking sound. She rolls over and Kurama sees her look at him. Her blue eyes are clear, and she smiles a little to show him she's okay.

"Get up!" Zenjirou cries. "Save yourself, goddammit!"

"I can't," she responds weakly through her bloody teeth. The smile fades, but her facial expression is still placid. "I won't."

"The hell you can't!" he shouts, hitting the bar once and withdrawing a burned hand. Kurama is surprised at the care for her. But neither he nor Zenjirou manage to hide their sympathy pains when Hiei takes hold of her foot and squeezes. Kurama's not sure what he's doing, until after Me'ran starts to cry out, little grunts punctuated by yelps, and she starts to pull at his hand. She's not strong enough to pry his hand off before her foot crunches loudly into his hand, misshaping her not-very-sturdy boot and turning her foot into a mass of crushed bone and flesh. He releases her, and she staggers and limps away, crying out with each step. After a short distance, she stays on the ground after falling and screams in pain. Both fox demons cover their ears.

"Would you just fight back!?" screams Zenjirou. "You took me out that quick!"

"I won't hurt him!" she shouts back, rolling onto her hands and knees to face him. Her face has gone vehement. Then she closes her eyes and curls into a ball as Hiei approaches her again. He tries to touch at the warded bars, but they just burn his hand.

"Pin him! You're strong enough to do that! You can overpower him without hurting him!" Kurama tells her, now.

Roshi cackles with a disgusting glee. "Come now, fox demons, if you talk, I'll call him off!"

"If you even make up something to tell him, I'll surgically switch your feet and hands!" Me'ran barks heatedly, all pain apparently forgotten. She rolls up onto her knees between attacks, and she lunges at him. She reaches for his head and neck with her hands, which could have been mistaken for aggression, but Kurama knows was just reaching for Hiei's pressure points. He stops her and nearly hits her, but she seizes his wrists instead.

He slams her into the wall and throws her onto her back. She holds onto his wrists. He stomps hard on her chest, but she still hangs on.

"Ouch... okay... someone come get him off me..." she says quietly. He continues to stomp on her, and kicks at her arms in an attempt to break them. She keeps her hold, and he hears no breaking sounds... Up 'til now, Kurama has been seeking something in the room still organic, something he can do to help her. The best he can come up with is completely useless. The papers the wards are on were once wood. He gives up for the moment.

"Try, Me'ran. You have to actually hurt him," he shouts to her desperately. "Pin him and try!"

"The change in him is chemical!" she cries. "I don't know how to fix it, and forcing the production of the chemicals I can use to sedate him--" She interrupts herself when he manages to kick her arm hard enough that it snaps halfway down her forearm. The scream rings in Kurama's ears, and the cackle from Roshi is sickening. Kurama wishes he was in his human form to lessen the effectiveness of the wards, just for this second, but his emotions are running so high that he can't control the surges of youki.

She lets go of Hiei and he kicks her hard enough for her to leave the ground and roll a little, getting at least twenty feet away from him. She uses the opportunity to explain the rest of the sentence, probably to distract herself from the pain. "The chemicals used to control him would react badly to the ones I know how to induce in his head--the overdose of whatever-the-demon-equivalent-of-melatonin is could either kill him or put him in a coma."

"Then come here and break me out and I'll sedate him my way!" Zenjirou responds heatedly.

"He's right, Me'ran. Knock him out," Kurama agrees.

"I can't, anymore, he broke my good arm," she says with a weak smirk. He gets closer and she scrambles away.

"I SAID BRING HIM HERE!" Zenjirou demands so loudly that Kurama has to cover his ears. "Let us out of this fucking cage and WE'LL take care of it!"

She starts running in their direction, probably hoping to lead him over, but Hiei is faster and he throws her back. She starts again, but he punches her in the back of the skull, and she tumbles to the ground before getting back up and starting to run again. This is even more brutal than watching him just hurt her. Now there's despair thrown in as he refuses to let her reach the goal she's fighting so hard for. Kurama almost feels his heart beating as the pain for her grows.

Hiei makes the wrong move and throws her roughly into the bars from midway across the arena. She hits, but she doesn't fall. Instead, the human girl takes hold of the metal in her left arm. Her face twists when her broken right arm tries to move, but she shuts it out and puts her shoulder and back as far as she can into the bars, wedging herself in, and she puts her good foot up against them and pushes with all her might. Every muscle in both her arms (she fixed her elbow into one's place), her back, her abdominals and legs are tight and tensed, and her face is closed in concentration, not letting her feel the pain. The bars make high pitched noises as she starts to move them. She doesn't have to go too far, just enough to get through, and he's not much wider than these are. Hiei pulls at her, but she keeps her hold on one of the bars. She's bent it back, just enough.

Kurama starts to bring the seals and wards to her attention, but she's thrown back and she hits her head on the wall and sprawls over the floor. She doesn't move anymore.

"Oh, look! She's been disabled! Let's see--Hiei! Use the Dark Dragon!" Roshi calls, giggling like a madman.

The sensation of unabated fear washes itself over Kurama, and he forgets all about the hole. "Me'ran!" he calls almost desperately, trying to get her attention, anything, please, wake up!

She comes to after a second. Hiei's already begun to gather his youki. She pushes herself onto her knees and shudders. Kurama wonders briefly if Roshi knows the mistake he's made in telling Hiei to call this out.

"What is that?" she asks. Her voice is terror-stricken, shaking and out of her control. He's never seen her look or sound this scared, even facing Touka, and his demon nose can smell it. She's close enough that he can even hear how her heart is pounding. "What is that, Kurama, what the fuck is that?!"

Hiei's begun to flicker black, and even he feels that everything's gone cold despite the blistering hot arena.

"Oh, god," Me'ran whimpers fearfully. She's standing up, now, and she's pressed to the wall. Kurama can see how hard her knees are shaking. "Kurama!" she cries, turning to look at the silver-haired fox-demon. He, hearing his name, gets his wits about him, and he tries to figure out what she can do to help herself.

"Don't run--it won't do you any good. Form a shield NOW!" Kurama orders quickly. She nods, moving her eyes back to Hiei, then holds out both her hands. The red plane of reiki grows to a little bigger than her upright stance, and she remains frozen like that.

"Put as much power in that as you can! You won't be able to fend it off all the way, but it will minimize damage."

The red glow increases, and the edges start to grow jagged, looking much like scattered broken glass. And then she vanishes behind a wall of black. Kurama hears a shrieking noise, but he's not sure if it's her or the dragon.

The wall she's pressed against gives way, and the dragon takes off flying, taking her with it. In the meantime, while Roshi and Hiei are distracted, he starts ripping at the seals keeping them in. He wouldn't normally even be able to touch them, but she tore some of them off while she was pushing the bars aside, and smudged the cheap ink. Even so, the pain's incredible, but reminding himself that she's experiencing worse right now, ignores it long enough to clear out the hole she made. He slides through it feet first. His first goal is to get Roshi. He can command Hiei to stop.

Kurama scrambles up the wall using an old trick he learned hundreds of years ago, he reaches Roshi, and he pins the miniature demon to his chair by a clawed hand on his chest. The wood in the chair is old, but not so old that Kurama can't have it grow around him and hold him.

The dragon comes back in, still with the flicker of red in its mouth, though the red looks much less impressive than before, and slams into a different wall. This one doesn't give way. The dragon is weakening. So is Me'ran. It's a matter of time and luck, now. Kurama looks Roshi in the eyes, summoning up every desire for blood in his being to put behind his eyes. "Call him off this instant, and I promise I won't torture you to death."

"H-h-h... Hiei! Stop!" Roshi squeals.

Hiei returns to a wall and sits down without a word or even a ghost of a facial expression.

The dragon fights for a little while longer, but not much without the command or youki feed from its master, before it completely dissipates. He sees Me'ran slump to the floor, heaving for air. Zenjirou runs to her. Kurama returns his gaze to Roshi, but then he realizes there is a strange lack of his guards around. Kurama looks for a second, then realizes that Natsu is here, standing in the back.

"Ah, Natsu," he says, breathing a little. "And here I was worried that he was about to call all of his guards on us at once."

"Youko Kurama-sama. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help, but I didn't want to scare him into killing anyone. Is the Little Human alright?" he says. He's still being respectful, but Kurama can see that he's worried about Me'ran. Again, he marvels at that damn girl and her ability to charm people, despite the stubbornness and other irritating qualities.

"She's fine," Kurama assures him. "Help them up, watch out for her arms, they will be badly burned." And again, his attention returns to Roshi. "What did you use to do this to Hiei?"

"W-w-w-waka(1)-I don't know what you're talking about..." he whimpers.

"You stripped Hiei of his will. She's perceived that the change was chemical. It was a potion of some kind, or an injection, and I want to know what it was," Kurama clarifies in a deep, cold voice. "I want to know how you did it." As he speaks, Natsu leans over the wall and picks Me'ran and Zenjirou up, and Kurama considers checking on them, but that would give Roshi a little bit of hope, and he doesn't deserve that.

"It doesn't matter, you can't undo it anyway," Roshi says quickly, fearfully, but Kurama can tell that he's not as frightened as he'd like him to be, or as he should be. All things considered, he is probably judging by the weakness in him and his companions. Roshi's keeping his eyes on the others, and he can see what the wards have done to Kurama's hands, and he can see that Me'ran's been weakened by the Dragon.

Me'ran tries to stand on her own, but she starts to fall. Natsu holds her up by the belt, and she uses his arm to lean on, though the instant she touches his skin, she cries out.

Kurama's still evaluating his prey, trying to figure out what he could do for torture without any of his plants. He's half-aware of what his companions are doing (Me'ran is sitting on the wall, instructing Natsu while he wraps her shaking fingers with a light gauze, and Zenjirou has actually vanished.)

He was still thinking about what he was going to do with Roshi when he sees a motion to the side, a small one, as the human girl stands up. Kurama turns his gaze to her. Me'ran looks deadly and powerful, suddenly, and when she talks, she sounds downright dangerous. "Let me talk to him, Kurama. You don't have your plants to help you, and your hands are hurt. I can take care of this."

* * *

(1) There was actually more stuttering, but my torrents are taking forever, so I decided to stick with the word I knew. ; "Waka" is the beginning of "wakaru" and "wakarunai" which are, respectively, I know, and I don't know. Well, okay, so, I'm not sure about the wakarunai one, but every time there is a negative (like in didn't, isn't, don't, etc.), "nai" is the suffix of the word, so I assume that that's what that means and that's what's that's for. 


	59. Brutality

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also. I'm writing a Kurama story. For a change. And I don't know what I want to do with the poor bastard. I already have my Sue set up for that one, and I like her ((she's nearly an anti-Sue)), but I don't know what storyline I want. Help!

You see, Hiei Fan, I already had you guys vote, but I don't like the storyline I came up with, and I can't come up with another, because my writy-thingie is broked.

So, I don't know. Someone message me so we can discuss it, my information crap is in my profile.

-R.F.

* * *

_Brutality_

It's quiet for a second before Kurama steps away to let Me'ran near Roshi. Me'ran approaches Roshi slowly. The heavy limp has vanished and her broken arm is hanging by her side limply. Kurama gathers that she healed her foot, because one can't really get out of needing one's foot, however she left her arm dangling to avoid spending much-needed energy. Roshi stares her in the face, defiant and trying not to be afraid, but he reeks of fear, and Kurama can see it in his eyes.

Me'ran leans down on his seat, putting her hand over a part of the wood that is binding him, and she touches his forehead with her broken arm's fingertips. A strange blue glow blooms from her hands and enters his forehead, and all the struggling against his bonds stops at once.

"Heh, you're lucky your species doesn't shit, you'd have made a god-awful mess," she mocks as she stands back up. Natsu puts his hand on her back to hold her up as she leans a little. She's hesitating. She doesn't want to do what she's about to do. To hide this from Roshi, she smiles in a way that reminds Kurama very much of himself, a few centuries back.

"There's no way you can reverse it, there's no need in this!" Roshi cries. His eyes shoot to three times their natural size as his fear returns. The sadistic smile scares him. Almost as much as it scares Kurama, he supposes. He's silently pleased by this. She seems to have left his neck and head mobile, but the rest of him is paralyzed.

She stands still a second, then leans off Natsu's arm, standing of her own accord again. She starts to move, but then she stops. "Me'ran--" the fox-demon starts to say, detecting her hesitance.

"Shut up," she interrupts, shooting him a weak glare. She doesn't have the energy for this, and even if she did, Kurama doesn't want to see someone as empathetic and caring and loving as she is torture anyone. She doesn't want to, either. Her hands are shaking, her face is taut, and he thinks her eyes would water if they could.

"_You don't want to_--" Kurama objects in English, not wanting to give Roshi any more hope.

"_I am fully aware of the fact that I don't want to, but it seems best suited that I do it because I know exactly what I'm doing. You don't have any of your plants to help you, you're hurt, and this is my fucking objective to complete. It seems best that I do it._"

Kurama agrees with what of that he understood. So instead of helping either of them, he sits down and stares down at Hiei, who is still sitting in his spot curled in the floor. Whatever it is doesn't cause loyalty to the master-figure, it just forces the victim to obey him. That's a bit of a relief—it means he won't fight without a direct order.

"What did you use to do this to him?" she asks first. She leans down to the medical kits that are still, miraculously, belted to her ankles, and she draws out a scalpel that she holds up in her left hand. "If you don't tell me, I'm going to do whatever it occurs to me to do. And just so you know, I am a healer. I've seen more than you will ever know, and I know how to cause you so much pain that you'll lose your mind before consciousness."

He looks at her, looking terrified. Kurama tries to tune out the sudden appearance of her brutality. He's never known such a good person to be so cold.

"It doesn't matter how--You can't fix it!" Roshi cries, but then he interrupts himself. There is a scream of pain that sounds much like a girl, and both he and Me'ran both cry out as she slowly pries off his fingernail. "STOP!" he roars. She continues. He starts to whimper and weep. She rips it free and drops it onto the ground. She looks like it hurt her as much as it hurt him, and she's gone pale--she looks as if she's going to be sick.

"Gonna talk?" she barks angrily. Her whole body is trembling, and Kurama sees her using her claws to pet and dig under the nail relative to the one she just tore off him.

"It doesn't matter, you can't fix it!" he whimpers.

She puts the scalpel under another fingernail and pries it off, even more slowly than the other. Kurama's ears are assaulted by the shrieks of pain, but he's heard worse. He's mostly still distracted by the fact that she could bring herself to do this.

"Stop!" Roshi screams.

She puts the scalpel down and goes into the other kit, and she holds out a pair of pliers. "Okay, look. Don't make me do this anymore. I don't want to, and you know I don't want to, so make it easier on me and just tell me, before I use this to remove all of your fucking teeth. Agreed?"

"It was... I used..." he whimpers. Kurama sighs in relief, and he hears Me'ran do so, as well. "I used... a Kansei potion... Ekatei plant, mixed with Corpse Vine's flower nectar, and a Fuhen tree's fruit's juice."

Despite the relief he was offered a few seconds ago, Kurama feels all the blood drain from his face, and he turns to look at the gnome. Roshi's staring hard into Kurama's eyes begging him to understand where the human would not. He does—he understands completely. A Kansei potion will cause unending suppression of free will. Add a drop of blood to the potion, and there will be pure obedience from whoever the potion is administered to.

"Stop, Me'ran, now," Kurama commands before she does anything else.

"Why? What's the Kansei potion?" she asks, looking fearful, now, as well as ill.

He explains it to her. And after that, it's silent for a second. Me'ran turns around to look at the silver-haired demon, then around at the others, and then sits down heavily. "Is there really no way to fix it?" she asks first, looking up at Kurama's eyes. Her wide, already-bloodshot eyes are pleading with him, and he can see and almost feel the emotional pain he just caused her with that news.

"There is a way, but it takes weeks to make. The potion itself takes centuries to wear off. Unlike spells, it doesn't die when the maker does. It will take time."

She breathes again, but she doesn't look any better. "_Shit,_" she finally says in a whimpering voice. She swore in English, but even the other two men can feel how much that meant and what it means to her. She looks at Roshi, and at his finger, and at the bloody fingernail on the floor. Kurama sees how she wants to hurt him again, but she pets her forefinger's nail and apparently forgives him.

Everything is interrupted when Zenjirou returns with a large piece of cloth in one arm. She goes to him, and Roshi starts to take a breath in to scream, but Kurama puts a hand over his mouth. "I think not, little man," Kurama warns angrily. Me'ran laughs from the doorway.

"Damn, Kurama, that was hot," she giggles. Then a look of concern spreads on her face. "Kurama? How far does this spell-potion-effect carry? It responds to voice commands; obviously not desires or one of us would be dead, by now."

"Wise. How far it carries depends on the victim and the master-figure. One doesn't have to hear the command; it's a matter of will of the master and the power of the victim. It does have to be spoken word, however, like a spell you have to say aloud."

"Mm. Well, we can't have Hiei attempting to kill us before we leave the desert, now, can we?" she asks quietly. She takes the scalpel with which she removed his fingernail back out and moves back to Kurama and Roshi.

"What are you about to do?" Roshi whimpers.

"I have to make sure you're going to be quiet," she answers. Then she puts the scalpel very easily into Roshi's windpipe. He cries out, but that silences quickly when she draws the tiny blade across, then down, then back across to cut a little box out of his throat. She stops the bleeding then, and looks to Zenjirou, who has been tearing the fabric up.

Kurama listens as Roshi makes hissing, wheezing noises out of the hole in his throat, but when he tries to form words, it does no good. He goes to help Zenjirou and Me'ran. She's healed her arm's bone, but not the skin, and Zenjirou is helping her wrap the skin up.

"What degree is that?" asks Natsu curiously.

"Third," she answers. "You can kinda tell where the second degree burns are, though, it's the lighter skin. Help me wrap this up, I can't heal it."

Kurama and Natsu help the human girl wrap her arms up, but no sooner than they're finished and she's said a quick "thank you", she's already on her feet and running. She leaps the wall and Kurama sees her running to see her lover. It's not a wise move, and Kurama knows it, but he's not going to say anything against it. He won't hurt her, and while it won't be good for her to see what condition he's in, it will help her to understand what's going on. He almost wishes she was telepathic so she could see his thoughts, too, but that wouldn't be pretty. She'd start weeping.

Kurama and the other two men follow her. She's got one hand to the tiny demon's temple, and her eyes have taken a glazed over look. Kurama's under the impression that the glazed look would be there even if she weren't in the process of seeking out what had been done to Hiei--she could not be well after fending off Hiei's Kokuryuuha. She holds it for a minute or two more, then she takes her hand away and lets herself fall backwards. She sprawls out on the ground on her back at his feet and stares up at him, for a second before she closes her eyes and sighs loudly.

"I fucking hate potions," she growls after a second. "And I fucking hate Hiei's dragon and I fucking hate that bastard, and I fu... D... I hate sleep," she finally growls before her eyes close and she falls asleep.

Kurama scoops her into his arms and Zenjirou hands him the remains of the fabric she used on her arms and he wraps it around her arms and upper torso. Hiei, taking some of his own initiative and not needing to be told to do everything, stands up in front of them and stares at her. He's not completely gone, then. That, or he's confused.

"Did you release the prisoners?" Kurama asks Natsu, first. He's trying, now, to build a plan of action.

"Yes."

"And have you found our weapons?" he continues.

He holds out a small packet and he hands Zenjirou his knives and he gestures at his own gloves.

"Good." Kurama starts to lead them out, "Someone take Hiei," he commands as he starts for the door.

Natsu nods, then scoops Hiei up onto his back. Hiei offers no objection, something that Kurama's unfamiliar with, but then Hiei puts his head down and falls asleep just as deeply as his human lover in his arms.

Kurama swears again, that if Hiei ever hurts her (he'll have to forgive him this attempt), the little fire demon will regret it for the rest of time.


	60. Caretaking

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

-R.F.

_Caretaking_

The trip out of the desert remains unremarkable. Kurama has to carry Me'ran, who is spoon-fed water every night and Natsu carries Hiei. Zenjirou chooses to help Riki and Naoko carry their burdens to be spared carrying either of the smaller creatures. Spare cloaks had been loaned to him and Natsu to make carrying Hiei--who, while a fire demon, did not need to be exposed to the sun unprotected for so long--and Me'ran--who lost large pieces of her keigoki to Hiei's dragon, didn't need that much sunlight at all, being human and sensitive to even the ningenkai's sun--less damaging and easier. Hiei walks with Natsu when he isn't being carried (the potion would make him weak with such distance from Roshi), but Me'ran doesn't wake up for the whole four-day trek. He's not sure if her disability is related to water-loss or reiki loss. Spilling out so much of it to have protected herself from the Dragon was remarkable--she shouldn't have been able to do that at all. It's done its damage, but she still did it.

As they leave the desert, he stops moving and turn to face the four followers. They stop.

Kurama begins by taking the cloak off Me'ran's torso and handing it to Naoko, who had given it to him. She shakes her head. "The human can keep it, she'll probably need it."

"Alright then. You may part ways with me. Your debts to me have been repaid, except you, Riki. Yours was her debt, and she collected on it. Natsu, if you want to, you can leave him with me; I can handle it from here. She should wake up soon."

"I'd rather stay," he says, repositioning Hiei. Kurama's thankful, but he doesn't let the others see this too much, not that it matters, because as soon as he says it, Naoko gets her brother's attention. Me'ran catches Kurama's attention when she moves, but she doesn't wake up, yet. After a brief exchanging of words, Naoko and Natsu move away from each other, Zenjirou gives him something, and he and Riki trade something, and then Natsu moves closer to Kurama. Kurama starts walking with Natsu on his heels.

"Why are you not taking her to her world?" Natsu asks him after he realizes that he's not going to the original portal.

"Me'ran and Hiei are going to have to stay together. I doubt he'll be so tame for so long, especially separated from her. Something that happens when one is in love is a chemical reaction, a hormonal imbalance, or achievement of balance; I've never been sure which. It's interfering with all the side effects of the potion. I would take them both back to the Ningenkai, but Hiei will not be tame, as aforementioned, and it's best to keep him where he will do less damage." As much as he hates to say it, or even think it, these two truly are in love. It would do him good to stay near her. Normally, after the Kansei potion has taken full effect, the person is almost entirely dependent on whosever the blood was. They can act without command, but often do not, other than for necessity, eating when hungry, excreting wastes, escaping immediate danger (unless the master-figure ordered them to stay), so on and so forth. Often, when separated, or when the master-figure leaves, the slave, or "pet", often follows him, even if commanded not to. Hiei has shown no objection to being taken away, so he can only assume that Me'ran is the reason he's not tried to get back to Ariseki, yet. It's probably because of the potion that he keeps sleeping, though. Keeping them together would be wisest.

"Where are we going?" Natsu asks him. Hiei's begun to stir, again, and Natsu lets him down after he wakes completely.

"I have a place in mind that would be a good place to keep them," Kurama informs him. He lets the impatient tones into his voice, hopefully shutting him up.

"You have a terrible habit of depersonalizing people, Youko Kurama-sama," Natsu points out rather curtly. He keeps his tones respectful, but Kurama can tell he's slightly put out at the referring to the smaller creatures with him as things that needed to be kept someplace, just as Kurama is annoyed with Natsu's constant questions.

"That I do. Do you have a problem with this?" Kurama responds just as curtly, but without any respect in his tones. Kurama watches as Hiei trots to catch up to him, and he studies the little fire demon as he looks at Me'ran. He's used Kansei potions before—he wasn't being entirely truthful with Me'ran—and he had learned that it was holding a very different effect on Hiei. Normally, the victims became vegetables, or mindless drones, attached to the master-figure and unable to do anything different. When the body retains its soul, however, it seems to just effect the mental maturity to a level somewhere around infancy. Hiei just looks so... innocent. Kurama's only seen it once before, except in his sleep. Something in his eyes is softer, and he is not scowling, and his stance is open and easy. It's probably the first time Kurama's ever seen him swing his arms as he walked, or even had them anywhere but on his sword, crossed, or in his pockets. In many ways, he looks childlike. It doesn't help that Hiei looks, easily, very small, barely coming to Kurama's hip, the hair only just reaching the top of that bone. It's very strange to think that Hiei is small, but it's clear that he is.

Natsu brings Kurama back out of thought after careful consideration as to what he's about to say, he assumes. Kurama is rather proud to notice that Natsu does not genuinely challenge him. "I don't think that someone that offers to die for complete strangers, much less you, deserves that, Youko Kurama-sama," Natsu points out, now. He has lost his respectful tones, too. He's quiet while he considers this. Admittedly, he has been rather short with Me'ran or to anyone with any matter concerning the Indestructible young woman for quite some time. He thinks this might be hostility born of the successful romance with Hiei, of all people.

"Perhaps you're right," Kurama says to Natsu. He doesn't say anything else to him, though, ending what conversation there was.

Continued study of Hiei's behavior has shown Kurama interesting things. He still has basic independence, but does not stray far from his object of affection (Being Me'ran.). He still recognizes foods (as proven when he hops into a tree and drops back down with a fruit from said tree in his teeth and a second one in his hand. He doesn't know what the second one is for, until Hiei hands it to him.). He's still naturally paranoid, or at least a survivalist--he continues twitching at unfamiliar motions or loud noises, and his hand goes to where his sword should be. And he shows limited memory (Well, limited in that he doesn't remember a few days ago.), in that when Kurama and Natsu stop so Natsu can get food for them and relieve himself, Hiei sits next to Me'ran and picks at the large bruises on her face from where he'd hit her, almost as if he's curious, implying that he had no recollection of giving them to her. Another thing Kurama notices (shortly after this) is that he is still hostile to anyone that tries to stop him from doing things he wants to do--as proven when Kurama catches his wrist to stop him from picking at the still-healing skin. He pulls away from the Youko, but when he starts again, Kurama catches him again and doesn't let go. After he pulls for a while, Hiei gets sick of it and sinks his teeth into the fox-demon's arm. He wouldn't mind so much, but for a fire demon, he has extremely sharp teeth.

"Agh!" Kurama yelps.

"Youko Kurama-sama?" asks Natsu as he returns.

Hiei's sharp little teeth are still lodged firmly in the youko's arm, and are now drawing blood. Kurama puts up as little resistance as possible, but that doesn't make Hiei let go. After a second more, Kurama gets annoyed at Hiei and pulls the little demon closer to him, putting the back of the spiky-haired head against his chest. Kurama pulls his arm back against Hiei's small mouth, forcing his jaw to lock in what isn't a comfortable angle, until, finally, Hiei releases. Kurama expects him to fight back, but Hiei just glares at him (that's normal.) and returns to Me'ran's side. It seems he learns well enough (at shorter intervals.) because he doesn't touch her again.

As the men get ready to move again, Hiei picks Me'ran up, first. He's only a little shorter than her, a few inches, but the motion, while graceful, still looks almost comical. But even so, he lifts her onto his back almost as if it's natural for him to do that (it's never occurred to him how often he'd have done that before.) and he starts moving between Kurama and Natsu. Kurama holds his hand down to the miniature fire demon.

"Let me have her, Hiei," he says firmly. Hiei glares at him and tightens his hold on the unconscious girl. Kurama smirks and Natsu smiles. "Come on, Hiei, it will be easier if you let me carry her," Kurama insists. Hiei seems to have no problems understanding him

He glares again. And then, as if finding his words, he gives Kurama the most typical response anyone with sense would ever expect out of him--"No."

"I think, perhaps, we'd better let him keep his girlfriend with him," Natsu laughs quietly. "I'll make sure he doesn't stray. You lead the way."

"He's fast," Kurama warns idly, irritable at the fire demon's stubbornness. "Faster than you. If he decides to run, you are going to have to catch him. Even I can't compete with his speed."

It's only half-true. Under normal conditions, Natsu is definitely the slower, but Hiei is in unfamiliar territory and he has an extra roughly hundred twenty or thirty pounds (Judging by when he was carrying her, combined with what he knows of her physique since her training with Genkai) on his back, so Natsu has a semi-decent advantage. He just wants Natsu on guard.

As it turns out, the warning was not necessary. It takes a few hours to find what he's looking for, but Hiei makes no attempt to run.

It's a small house. Very small house, for that matter, one room with a smaller room. It used to be a place he would store whatever goods he'd stolen recently, or where he'd hide when wounded (Not including that last time he got wounded...). There are a series of underground tunnels, and even a few that lead out into the canopy from the roof. It's very comfortable, or, at least, he always thought so. He leads Natsu and Hiei through the door and down through the tunnels into a large room that he used to call his den.

It's well maintained, as it should have been. No one knew about this place, and even if they did, they would never have found the passage into the passages, and even if they did that, the passages were rigged. Me'ran and Hiei would doubtlessly discover this, eventually, but she could heal him, and it couldn't kill her.

The room he called his den has a large cushion in it. The cushion had played its role as his bed for the fair part of a hundred years when he was just moving out into the world. By "large", (as he explained to the woman that he commissioned it from), it is as deep as his knee and large enough all the way around that he could stretch and still not touch the ends with his fingers or toes. Which, by comparison, was not large, really, but considering that it would be Me'ran and Hiei on it, it would look huge. The cushion has its own cubby hole in the wall that it's only just tall enough for Kurama's seven-foot frame to crawl or duck walk in. Me'ran and Hiei would hit their heads if they stood straight up too quickly, but no damage could be done. It might ruin Hiei's hair, but he'd forgive that.

Natsu helps Kurama pull the cushion out of the hole and flip it a couple of times to get the dust or whatever could have burrowed into it (a few bug and plant demons) and then he lets Natsu kick it from the back side before he puts it back on the ground. Now comes the hard part.

"Hiei, let me have Me'ran," Kurama insists, kneeling and looking Hiei in the face.

The red-eyed man glares at Kurama and takes a defensive stance, tightening his hold around Me'ran's legs..

"I'm not going anywhere. Just let me see her. You can even stay right with me, okay?" he offers. This is getting old. He thinks that Hiei's natural fear of him (damned stories in his youth and his current knowledge of what he can do in this form) might actually be having an effect. Natsu figures this before Kurama even opens his mouth to tell him, and he kneels next to Hiei and puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Let me have her, then, Hiei. You're faster than me, and I can't do any fancy tricks," he says, holding his hands out palms up, showing him that he hasn't got anything. Hiei looks reluctant, but he kneels and releases his hold on the human's legs to let Natsu pick her up.

"Bed, right?" Natsu asks, quirking an eyebrow and twitching his head toward the cushion. Kurama nods.

Hiei watches silently as Natsu carries her and puts her into the cushion. It hasn't lost any of its softness, he's delighted to see (it means that once his life as Shuuichi is over, he will have a place to return), and Me'ran fits snugly into the cushion, curled on her side with her hands curled up near her face. Kurama moves back into the hole to pull the cushion back in. It would keep them safe enough. After the cushion is back in its proper place, Hiei moves into the hole and sits near Me'ran protectively.

Kurama leads Natsu back to the room from which they entered. He's been silent, up to now. Kurama can't help but wonder what he's thinking, but neither his face nor his scent has given anything away. "Thank you, Natsu," Kurama says to him first. He wants the taller one to leave, now. "And a word of forewarning--if you tell anyone about this place, or visit it ever again, I'll have you killed in the most horrific, painful way imaginable."

"Yes, Youko Kurama-sama," he answers with false respect. Kurama considers instilling fear of him in the taller lanky one (again) but it wouldn't be worth it. He's not going to tell anyone about how soft he's gone. He's fortunate that Natsu's a good person; else he'd have to worry about Me'ran or Hiei as well as his own hide in a fight.

Natsu doesn't leave, yet, though. He stands for a second, fishing through his pockets, instead.

"What--"

"My sister and Riki and Zenjirou each had gifts for her. I think they admired the near-death state she let herself enter for our sakes and wanted to thank her. I couldn't think of anything to give her, so instead I carried her lover here," he explains softly as he finds what he's looking for. Kurama nods his acknowledgement and holds out his hand to take whatever it is that Natsu's offering. A small sack is dumped into his pale hands. Kurama considers looking into it, but he knows that if something in there was worth taking, he wouldn't be able to resist. And with that, Natsu's gone.

Kurama checks on Hiei, makes sure the rest of these tunnels are unoccupied, then goes to find food for them. It will take him three weeks to prepare the potion needed for Hiei's recovery, and he needs to report back home to his mother. He can only be gone to an out-of-town friend's house for so long. The disappearances after this will be hard to come up with an excuse for, but he can just say he's were tutoring Kuwabara. (This, most times, would be true, if it weren't for the fact that Kuwabara is a swift learner and Me'ran weren't such a distraction.)

On his food hunt, Kurama considers, for a long time, botching the potion and "accidentally" killing his competition or something, but that victory and being a second choice would not be worth her tears, assuming she'd ever be able to weep again. Damn Hiei.


	61. Hiei's Condition

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS MEET-AND-GREET ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.__

_Hiei's Condition_

Me'ran wakes up curled up on a really, really soft cushion. She doesn't really remember much, and she has no idea where she is and what's going on, or how much of however long has been real.

She shifts just a little with her eyes still closed, but her back touches something so warm it counts as hot, and she rolls away from it. Her eyes snap open. Hiei's sleeping there, stretched out on his side, leaning just a little back. She pushed him that way when she rolled.

She moves her arms and hiss in pain when parts of them sting. There are burns on her hands and arms, second and third degree. She's almost horrified to see them. She doesn't remember getting them, but there's no way that's not going to scar something horrifically ugly. There are matching ones on her chest. They're new, but not fresh--bright pinkish red blotches of skin that have begun to peel like sunburn, except for the still-wettish new skin that is the sign of a popped blister. For the level of damage done, they're surprisingly good-looking. The skin is not as mottled as it could be, and what should have been charred black, dark pink, or red is light pink and red and hot pink. She slept for a long time, then. There are wounds on her shoulders, too, twin piercings through the soft spots on her collarbone. They need to be cleaned and dressed, since she can't see them clearly. Her face is sore, too, and she can feel how one of her eyes is slightly swollen, as is one of her cheeks. The spot in her lip is no longer puffy, but there is still tenderness and that taste of blood. Okay, so that proves that Hiei beat the shit out of me...

The sudden recollection of how easily he kicked her around, no consideration whatsoever for her, nor ability to stop himself... and how she couldn't bring herself to stop him and hurt him, anything to make him stop hurting her...

Stop that. I can weep later. Me'ran looks up, now. The ceiling's low, right here. She crawls over the cushion until she gets to the place where the ceiling picks up.

First—she heals her arms. She can see them. Patches on the wrong sides of her arms are missed, on the outsides that she can't see, and what of them had already healed, but largely, they are not as gross or dark red anymore.

Then she looks around.

She can tell everything here was made, originally, for a very tall person. Except for the cubby hole, which she thinks is related to how much safer one feels when in a spot not easily accessed. A hide-out of Kurama's, then?

After she starts wandering the place, it reminds her vaguely of the desert plateau, only it's cleaner. She can tell that they're entirely tunnel, but there's a spell that makes them look like real walls or something. It's kind of pretty, too. He must have taken great care of this place. Or something. There's one hole in the ceiling, but no ladder leading to it. There is a ladder on the wall of the hole, but no ladder up or down from it. She doesn't try to go up there. She can already smell how it's rigged. It reeks of gunpowder. Plus, she's not tall enough to get up there. She'd have to kick off a wall and catch the bottom of the ladder.

Me'ran hears strange footsteps that sound so much like Hiei's, but they're not Hiei, and she's afraid for a second, until she turns and sees that it is Hiei.

"Oh," she says, breathing. He still looks listless and unfocused. Me'ran can see it in his eyes, that something's wrong, but he's still okay. "Can you talk?" she asks him after a minute. He looks even more confused. "Okay, I'll take that as a no."

Me'ran starts walking again. Hiei follows her. She stops, he stops. She starts again, he starts again.

Me'ran goes all the way around the place. Hiei follows her so closely she's surprised he hasn't stepped on her heels, yet, though every time she stops, he bumps into her. He continues doing this until he gets to a room that's even cleaner than the other rooms, apparently a kitchen, and she sees a basket of demonic fruits sitting on the counter. She picks one up and picks at the tough peel. Hiei seems to know what this is, 'cos he picks it up and sinks his teeth into it. She does the same, sitting on the floor.

Well, this isn't so bad. It could be worse. She can stay with him, at least. He's alive and okay. He'll just need a little extra taking care of for a little while, and Kurama's already fixing it.

He's silent. That's not abnormal. The obvious dependence on her is, though.

"Me'ran?" calls Kurama's human voice. Me'ran recognizes it, but the sound triggers every nerve in her body, and she twitches violently. Hiei, surprised by her surprise, is on his feet in under a second.

"In here," Me'ran calls, hastily taking Hiei's hand and pulling him back down to her side. He complies with her wordless request easily. "Sorry," she says as he moves into the room with them. Kurama saw that, the human girl guesses, because he hesitates when he moves into the room.

"It's alright. When did you wake up?" he asks, looking relieved. He's back into his red-headed form, clad again in a warm brown jacket and jeans and a white t-shirt. He's got a rose he's twirling idly in his fingers.

"Not long ago. I don't know," she says.

"An hour ago," Hiei states in a voice that is his, but not his at the same time.

Me'ran jumps at the sound of his voice and look at him, puzzled. Hadn't he just not talked a little while ago?

"What was that?" she asks, still confused.

"He will speak every now and again. Probably a reflex or a remainder of old habits. He said 'No' earlier, when I was trying to get him to stop carrying you. It seems his mentality has been affected very strongly. I've never seen the effects of the Kansei potion, so I'm not sure what it's done, or how it will affect behavior. This case is different from what I've heard happens. I think that's because of you. He can't fight it, and the chemical effects are still there, obviously, but many of the common side-effects are being neutralized, probably by the influx of hormones that you cause in him."

"Because of the love thing, right?" she asks, blinking. The bruises in her face tighten as her face contorts to express her confusion, inducing an ache and a wince. Hiei sees this and she feels him get closer to her, staring up at the offending marks on her face. She pets his head out of reflex and he makes a soft pleased sound and lays his head down next to her leg.

"Exactly. From what I've heard, it's uncommon for the subject of the potion to be separated so easily from the person the potion was made for, but he's not even shown a thought of it. He does seem to need to sleep a lot, though, which was common, but he's not nearly as weak as I think he should be. I'll look into it later, while I'm making what should counteract the ingredients."

Kurama puts another basket of fruits on the surface, apparently a counter or table or something. He pulls out a few things, little satchels and bags, and he puts those in his pockets.

"Some of these fruits also have chemical effects, as many things in Demon World do. I've been careful to pick out what wouldn't affect him negatively. I don't know if some of them will hurt you or not, though, so be careful. I'm going to work on the potion with which we can heal him at home. I'll visit on weekends, but I'll have to keep the visits brief. I trust you two to keep yourselves safe and fed. The ways in and out of here are all rigged with traps--"

"I knew that. I could smell that step on the ladder that explodes," she says quickly.

"Good. I decided it wouldn't be that dangerous for you two, considering you're Indestructible and he's not got enough grounds in his own mind to do that. Take him with you anyway, though. You could use the protection, and I don't doubt that his reflexes and his dependence on you will help you."

"Cool. Hey. What day is it?"

He looks at her funny. "What?"

"It's November, right? It was the first, when we left."

"Today is November ninth. I will have this finished in exactly three weeks. You're fortunate that the full moon is in two weeks, else we'd have to wait longer."

She smiles weakly. "Well, it'll be a late birthday present," she decides. "Thank you, Kurama."

It's almost a bit too much. She's overwhelmed with just everything. Her boyfriend trying to kill her (granted, he's kind of out of his own control), her boyfriend being out of his own control, and she's got to wait three weeks for his sanity to return... And Kurama's being so nice about this, and he has no reason or excuse to.

Thinking about all of this at once, her knees go weak, and her nose burns, but no tears form. A sob attacks her, but she chokes it down in her chest, and strains to keep it down. Her bruised face hurts as she struggles to hide it. Kurama moves closer to her, and he puts a comforting hand to the side of her head and steps closer and pats her back, sort of hugging her. She leans against his shoulder to thank him, and just that gesture makes her feel a little better. What cheers her up more is when she feels a tugging on the back of her keigoki. Kurama lets her go and she looks over her shoulder and she can't help but laugh. Hiei's standing with the fabric in one hand, looking like a resentful three-year-old.

"Okay, I'm sorry, Hiei," Me'ran hums quietly, kissing Hiei on the cheek. He settles on his heels and he lets go of the keigoki, but he doesn't release her entirely, now hanging onto her belt.

"I'll return in a few days," Kurama says simply. Something in his eyes looks troubled, but she kisses his cheek, too, and it vanishes. "You can get out through the ladder, and the closest tunnel out of here will try to crush you, and I would rather keep that tunnel open, as it is my favorite one, so don't use it. Several fruit trees are around here. Try to keep to the kinds of fruit I've already gathered." It's cute. Even as he tries to keep it down, pinkness rises into his cheeks until he's straight up blushing.

"Thank you, Kurama," she says again. He smiles a little and turns to leave. Hiei's facial expression looks a little darker than normal, even though it's barely changed. She scratches his head, and, immediately, he leans into her hand and tilts his head to one side to allow access to that side of his head. It's not normal, but it is adorable. She goes back to eating. This won't be too bad, will it?


	62. This is Troublesome

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.

_This is Troublesome_

Me'ran and Hiei are now fruit hunting. Kurama's supply lasted exactly three days, so now they're looking for trees he's planted. Hiei's been following her closely, and his hand twitches to where his sword would be if he had one when he's surprised, but other than that, it's like a normal outing with Hiei. Neither of them says a damn thing.

They have a lot of fun trying to figure out how to climb a tree when the lowest limb is too far up for even Hiei to jump to.

And then real fun decides to bother them in the form of three very large demons. Hiei moves defensively in front of Me'ran, but he's lacking a sword, so he can't do shit, really.

"Human meat!" one cries, reaching for her. She fends it off with a shield, and Hiei jumps at the demon, using an intense fire in one fist to beat him back. Another tried to use the distraction to go for her, and the third goes for Hiei. She fends off the one going for her by throwing a small potion of her own (she got really bored a couple of days ago and started going by memory what chemicals from the peels of this one fruit does combined with a little water and a little flower nectar from this one poisonous plant) into his face. Looking to check on Hiei's status, he's been taken hold of, but this is remedied when that guy drops him, now, screaming and shaking his burned hands and blowing on them before the two of the smaller creatures jump and kick his face.

Hiei's smirk almost gives her the impression that he's back, and she grins and picks up the fruits lying around.

"Well, I see it was wrong of me to worry for you," Kurama says lightly as he approaches. Me'ran jumps so badly that Hiei steps to her defense again. Kurama puts his hands over Hiei's fists and moves to her to help her pick up what they dropped. "What was that you threw at his face?"

"It's a lot like acid, only it's just corrosive to soft tissue. Anywhere but the face, crotch, or an already-there wound would make that thing ineffective. It was a bitch finding that out, though."

He looks impressed and nods. "I see. Did you make that in just a few days?"

"Yeah. I was bored, and Hiei doesn't need any real taking care of, he just needs a little extra help here and there. And he's gotten clingy. Which I never thought I'd say or whine about, but damn, he wakes me up when he touches me in my sleep."

"A clingy Hiei? Honestly, that's the last thing I'd ever expect to see. Perhaps Yuusuke will start practicing manners and respecting authority, next," Kurama laughs.

Me'ran smiles a little to herself. Hiei moves closer to her.

She jerks her thumb at him. "Another thing is I never noticed exactly how bloody warm he was. I knew he was a fire demon, but it never occurred to me that his body temperature would be this damn high all the bloody time. When he sleeps on me, whatever bare skin he touches turns pink and no matter how cold my feet or hands are, I still sweat. Hurts the fuck out of what's left of my arms."

"It lowers when he's asleep," Kurama chuckles. "I think, perhaps, you're cold for a human. Come this way, there's another tree."

br 

"How have you been getting along?" the red-head asks concernedly on her way back.

"You remember when we were stuck in the tunnels before I killed Touka?" Me'ran inquires. She's compared this to that several times in her head (being reminded by boredom) and she finally gets the chance to tell someone about it.

"Of course," he answers lightly.

"Something like that, only without Yuusuke and Kuwabara to play with and instead of trying to kill me, Hiei's been clinging to me like a four-year-old who's lost his mother."

"I see. So it's incredibly boring for you? Especially without anyone to pick a fight with?" Kurama laughs.

"Exactly. Hiei's been getting bored, too, but he usually blows off the time by picking at whatever spare threads he can find on my keigoki when I take it off. Or before then, I don't think he really cares much," Me'ran continues idly, looking around for some more fruit trees.

"Has he had any moments of clarity?"

"This one time I woke up to hear him pacing the room outside the bed-place-thing, and that was possibly related to being himself again and stuck in a small space," she sighs dejectedly.

Hiei takes hold of her belt, stopping her in her tracks, and she looks over her shoulder. He's pointing, so she follows the indicative finger and sees five more demons.

"Ah, Kurama?" she says, tapping his shoulder.

All five drop down, surrounding the three of them, and Kurama makes short work of them with his whip.

"Troublesome bastards, ne?" Me'ran says cheerfully. She didn't even have to put down her fruit basket.

"I agree," Kurama sighs. "As a doctor, you know how to prepare meat, right?"

"I could learn."

"Good, you'll need more than fruit. You'll have to prepare it quickly, of course, but demon meat keeps remarkably well," Kurama says, making a smooth motion with one arm and removing a demon's leg with his whip.. Me'ran moves over and picks it up.

"Hey, I think I see another one of your trees. Could you watch Hiei a second?" Me'ran asks quickly as she takes off.

"I don't think," Kurama begins, but she's already put the baskets and meat down and started up for the mottle-skinned green things that remind her, sort of, of avocados, but not quite.

She gets half up the tree when Kurama calls her name. He tried to stop Hiei from following her, which has proven to be unwise.

Unfortunately for Kurama, while Hiei's mentality might be a little lower than normal, his fighting ability and power are not. Kurama suffers a fiery fist to the face just as she turns around, to which he responds with a vine from the tree neighboring the one she's in to tie Hiei up. He breaks this and goes after Kurama.

"Hiei!" Me'ran barks angrily. Instantly, the fighting stops. Hiei cranes his head up to her. "Come on, dumbshit, just follow me, don't fight him!"

Before she blinks, Hiei's in the tree with her.

"Sorry, Kurama," she says cheerfully, blushing a little. "I'll heal you when I get back down there."

Hiei follows the rest of the way up the tree until she reaches the fruits and collects a few.

She drops out of the tree, then goes to Kurama and heals his face. Hiei, once again, does not appreciate this and tugs at her arm, this time, and a little more violently.

"I think he's getting his feelings back more than his thoughts," she says when she finally decides to observe this.

"Well, they're considerably more powerful," Kurama admits. "I was wondering if they were memories, but I don't think so."

They start back to their hiding spot after Kurama helps her gather more fruit. Almost immediately after she gets there, Kurama leaves, once again, and Hiei and she are left alone.

So she prepares the meat, finds what is apparently an airtight container that Kurama kept things in (that needs a desperate cleaning) and she cleans it and then shoves the meat in there.

So she eats, finds the tunnel with the hot spring, she bathes, dresses again, and collapses into the big cushy cushion that is the current sleep-spot. Hiei follows her to all of these, except the hot spring (apparently, he's modest, still, or at least honoring her privacy) where he sat outside no more than twenty feet away from her anyway. After she climbs in the bed, Hiei follows suit, moving right behind her and practically spooning with her, which wouldn't be odd, except he's never done it before. He keeps his arms close to his chest and between him and her, but he's still close enough to touch, and she can literally feel the heat emanating off him.

"Come here, Hiei," Me'ran offers, moving a little to gesture. He sits up, but he doesn't move. He doesn't get it when she says 'come here' because he is here, obviously. Damn, this is like when she was four and she was playing Smart-Ass Simon Says with her brother. She takes his hand and guides him to her front, and she lies back down and he lies down with her, and she wraps her arm around his waist and put her face to the back of his neck and breathes down his spine again. She feels goose bumps rise under her arm over his chest (am I that cold?) and he settles quickly after a second, and the two of them sleep.


	63. Hiei

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.

* * *

_Hiei_

Hiei's almost surprised by the sudden change in his spirit's surroundings. Something in his mind calls out to him, and it's almost like someone just turned on a light, the change is so sudden.

For an eternity, he'd been shut in the dark here, waiting and waiting and waiting. He'd been aware. Sort of. It's there. He was still beyond anything, but he was still there, in a sense. (It was worse than being a ghost--at least ghosts could still move and see and feel and hear, where Hiei couldn't do any of these things.) He'd been trapped in a black place, no ground, no ceiling, no air, no light. He could not access any of his senses, he could not access any of his powers, he couldn't even pretend he was moving or breathing. Like being a soul trapped in a dead body that had been buried. Dreamless sleep combined with awareness, when one's mind is awake but the body refuses to be so. He can't even access his memories. He hardly knows his own name. He remembers something about Hiei. And Imiko. And Me'ran.

The sudden thing is a sensation. It's just feeling. None of his senses have returned, not even touch, but he feels better, warmer, less dead.

Then there's a feeling so strong that it nearly sweeps him away. Something feels good. He feels alive—warmth washes over him at the same time as chills, but something about it comforts him in the same way killing someone stronger than him does, or the smell of fresh blood, or seeing Me'ran's face light up when he comes into her apartment when she's not expecting it. Me'ran? He asks himself. What? Who the hell is that? He can't remember, but the name is music to his ears, and he knows that it is a source of joy, so he leaves it alone. He tries to stretch for his senses, but they elude him. He doesn't mind this--he still feels good. He basks in it. It's there. He's alive andthere.

This lasts for a long time, days, probably. He's still not sure how long, but it doesn't stop. It gets better, for that matter, when suddenly, he can smell something, and feel something. He still can't see or hear, but he smells something. Blood, he thinks. Flesh. Human, for that matter. And there's a familiar sensation, too, cold arms around his neck and the weight of someone's head on his shoulder and hair on his neck. His eyes are almost his, but he is denied this sense. A girl, no less--her chest is pressing to his back, and the familiar heartbeat graces him with its comforting rhythm pushing dully against his back. The scent of blood and human and demon and her all lead him to the same conclusion. Even though he can't see her or really feel her, he knows that he's carrying her, probably unconscious, on his back, as he has the other two (or three) times she's saved him. He's walking free. She's saved him again.

An almost-familiar sound reaches his ears, though he's not sure what it is, and then a completely unfamiliar one gets through, but he's even less sure of that one, (he decided the last one was a voice), and his body does as it wants and then the weight on his back is lifted. He starts to follow it, forcing his limbs to obey, fighting to keep hold on his senses. Something about losing her is making him lose himself, too, and he can't have that. He strains to get his eyes back, but it does no good, so he traces her by feel and by smell, what of them he can get. Apparently, his body isn't happy about losing her, either--he doesn't have to work very hard for very long--his limbs move on their own until he finds her. She's lying down. He waits for the other presences to leave before he wills his body (he finds that he doesn't have to force it to do anything as hard as he did, before--it's more like a request, he can ask his body to comply, or at least this time) to lay down with her. Her cool skin and her heartbeat and her presence and... It feels better than anything he's known. He knew it before, but now it's the only contact with real life and his body he has, and he wants it, so he takes advantage of it and he presses close to her back and he listens to her heartbeat, and his body and he falls asleep peacefully in the first time in an eternity.

* * *

When he wakes up, it is because the source of semi-warmth (she's colder than him, but her body warms up with his so close to it so quickly) is gone. He and his body both feel distress at this fact. He's even less there than he was, yesterday. It's like being blindfolded and bound all over again. He sort of feels himself getting up, and he sort of feels himself walking. 

And then he smells her, and he wants to cling to her, but he's not sure where she is, and he doesn't think his body wants to, either. It's still uneasy, he guesses.

Her voice speaks, and he almost hears it, but not quite. And then he feels himself walking, with her scent right in front of him, She stops. He stops. He feels that. And then he tastes something. It never occurred to him that his sense of taste might be back without him noticing. It wouldn't make much sense for him to taste the air, now, would it? But that's juice from a fruit, he's eating something.

And then after that, he can see. Sort of. He can only make out rough shapes and brighter colors, the dirty red surrounded by brown, the unhealthy white on top of it, and the darker color, something like brown or blond or red or something on top of that (he has to look down to see it), and the bright blurs in a brown blur under them, but eyesight is eyesight, and this is progress, slow and irritating though it is.

The red, white, and dark (he can't pick out an exact color) is her. She's got a black blur in her mouth. He's pretty sure it's a fruit. It looks (his eyes are slowly but surely getting better) like a Peiki, which makes sense 'cos he was just eating that. He sits down next to her, almost touching her, but his body seems to not want to do that.

It's quiet for a while, until, suddenly, she twitches violently when a sound cracks the silence. His body jumps up before he does. She says something back then takes his hand and jerks he backs down. His body complies easily. He wonders why it's listening to her more than it's listening to him.

The sound is Kurama. He moves into the room and leans against the doorway and talks to her. His hearing is clearer than before, but all that really offers is as simple as differentiating between Kurama's voice and Me'ran's. This is surprisingly hard.

Both their attentions turn to him for a second, but not for long.

Something bothers Me'ran enough that she puts her head down, and then Kurama hugs her. Hiei's immediately displeased, but his body doesn't feel anything. He reaches out and takes hold of her keigoki and pulls her back. This is a motion of his own accord, so it takes a lot of work. His face shows something, though, he guesses, because she leans close to him and kisses his cheek. Touching is comforting, so when it's time to let his arm down, he doesn't let it go all the way, leaving it on the back of her belt.

A little more goes on, and he feels how his face is tighter, displeased, he guesses. She kissed his cheek, too. This ends, however. He's still not happy, but his body certainly is as she scratches at his scalp. His body betrays him and leans into her hand.

That was the first time in what felt like an eternity, he really felt alive again.

* * *

A few days pass. He thinks. He fades in and out, but he makes it well enough. 

Following Me'ran gets old. He wishes he didn't have to be so close to her to keep himself sane. Every now and again, he'll let her move away from him, leave the room or whatever she's going to do, and then run to catch up with her, or even wait for her to come back for him. There's a rush of something that allows him almost full access to his body. When she touches him, takes his hand, or scratches his head or runs her fingers through his hair or over his back, he feels it even more, and he can almost get a grip on himself. Unfortunately, these little rushes are short-lived, and he's usually left fighting once more shortly after he finds it.

He practices keepi

* * *

ng himself in himself while she's found something to do while she's sitting down or something. His eyes have gotten much clearer--he can see burned patches in her keigoki and the places it's been worn threadbare, and her bare arms (It looks like the sleeves burned off). Before, he had the notion to pull at the threads, but he didn't. His body, however, wanted to, and started to while she was still wearing it. She looked at him funny, pets his head, and then handed him the keigoki and went back to her business. (He thinks she was making something out of a fruit peel that couldn't be eaten and a flower, but he's not sure.)

* * *

At one point, he wakes up, completely in himself. He almost attacks, out of instinct, because something's touching him, but he pulls the punch half an inch from her head and he gawps at how well his arm obeyed him. He had fallen asleep in her arms, and her breath was cool on his neck, and where her arms were making contact with his waist and chest had turned pink, and, overall, he was attached to her for a long time. He feels much better because of this. He's in himself. He can see, he can smell, he can hear, he can move, and it's not even a strain. He pushes himself up and starts to venture away from her, but then he feels the all-too-familiar sensation of the emptiness begins to drown him, so he moves back to the outside of the pit in the wall. Dammit! DAMMIT! He was so close! 

Instead of focusing on the loss, he reminds himself of his motion. He turns a few flips across the room, and he runs along the walls until he can't anymore, and he paces for a while, and summons up his fires, and... He crawls back into the hole and sits and looks at Me'ran. She has bruises on her face, and burns on her limbs, and the keigoki that she normally wears is wrapped around her feet, and he sees two dark, deep wounds in her shoulders. She looks terrible. He doesn't know where the marks came from, but something in him is sorry, and something else in him wants to murder the one that did all that damage.

* * *

More days pass. She takes him fruit gathering. He thinks that's what she's doing, anyway. She tells him a few times, because his mouth has repeated the question a few times. Every time she tells him, he forgets. (Another symptom of whatever's been done to him is a loss of the ability to concentrate. His brain isn't fully his, either.) But he follows her anyway. 

Fighting is still natural, he finds. He doesn't kill them. His body tries, but Hiei holds it back for her sake.

Kurama finds them. For once, his body agrees with him when he starts getting close to her. And when Kurama tries to keep him from following her (just a simple hold on his arm, he doesn't know why his body lashes out as strongly as it does), his body attacks him. She gets his attention, and he follows her, instead. And then when she heals Kurama (because he managed to hurt him) his body gets annoyed, if not angry, and pulls her away from him.

And then Hiei's alone again. He lost a bit of time, he guesses, but then he realizes that he's back inside, resting against a wall. He hears water trickling down, and when he investigates the source, he finds that she's bathing.

And then she bathes (his body wants to follow, but he doesn't let it) and she goes to the bed-thing and he follows her. He keeps himself curled up at her back, but she pulls him closer to her and in front of her, and she wraps her arms around him (he doesn't even want to admit how good it feels, even if every time she twitches, it jolts his whole system). But the cold wrapped around him and her breath on his back and... He sleeps soundly again. Damn human.

* * *

Over... however long it's been... He can't tell anymore... There has been no true improvement. 

He wouldn't mind this. He really wouldn't. If only it weren't so fucking frustrating and consistent. That goddamned girl, stupid healer woman, she's not laid a hand on him, and she can't do anything about this shit, but even so, he only gets control of himself when he's near her. He wouldn't even mind that so much, but it doesn't help anything if she's not right there. He. He, Hiei of Three Eyes, survivor of the Jagan implant and only known master of the Kokuryuuha, can't leave the presence of a human without losing control of his own fucking body.

There has been no recovery, other than what little bits get better after he eats or when Me'ran's got herself in close contact with him, or the almost-but-not-quite full recovery after sleeping in her arms. This is usually short-lived. It's terrible. The weakness, the inability to move himself, the powerlessness that it gives him, it's sickening.

He thinks that his constant ill mood is bothering her empathy, over the span of time. Her countenance has changed. She's slower to move, she's more uneasy and her movements have gotten clumsy and weak, and her head stays down and she still hides it from him, but the blue eyes are bloodshot when she returns from her baths, and her cheeks are rosier and her nose is runny. She's been weeping. Each time, he tries to figure out why, but to make it stop, he kisses her. Each and every time she returns from the bath, hiding her tears from him, he's consumed with guilt, and he struggles to help her get over it, and he kisses her. She kisses back, half the time.

He's aware of how much she is bothered by all of this, sometimes. She hides it well. The tears are only one of the signs. The few times she touches him, he can tell that she wants to pull him closer, or hold him, and then when he pulls away, she releases reluctantly, and her fingers curl against his skin, sometimes.

* * *

Over time... 

He lets her hold him. It feels. Nice. He's never been held before, other than when they were having sex or when she cuddled with him in her sleep. It's sweet. Comforting. He feels her strength and her power and her love. Her heartbeat, a foreign sound but so familiar at the same time, and its rhythm are nearly hypnotic. She doesn't know how conscious he's been, he guesses. Right now, (it's been a week or so) he's lying with his shoulders and head in her lap with his eyes closed. She hums, now and again. One hand is grasping the hand he has resting on his chest. And her other hand is in his hair, petting it and running through it. Her nails on his scalp are soothing.

His eyes open and he looks at her face. The scabs on her hands from the burns, and the reddened flesh on her arms are visible, and the bullet scars on her chest, and... This is for him. All of these are for him. And she's not abandoned him. She hasn't left him for dead, yet. Her nails go through his hair, catching on little tangles, and she pulls gently to free her hand... Something about this is overwhelmingly... good. It feels right, it feels wonderful, and he loves her and everything about her for this instant, and he wants nothing more than to be close to her.

He thinks... he could move again of his own accord.

He picks himself up. She lets go easily and quickly, expecting him to move away, but he doesn't. He kisses her, instead. His hand grips her keigoki at the fold over and he presses his mouth to hers. She's so surprised that she doesn't kiss back for a second, but she returns the favor. He pins her down on Kurama's bed-cushion (damn fox, treats himself like his own pet) and he straddles her, but she pushes him off. Her face is flushed, and her lips are suddenly red and her breath is coming more slowly and deeply than before. She wanted nothing more than to do this. Then why stop?

"No, Hiei," she says in a firm voice as he starts for her again. He doesn't say anything after he freezes, either. He can't. He doesn't want to, really, other than to ask why not, but his body doesn't obey the command, anyway, so he can't ask. "We can't do that to Kurama," she says, now, sighing, almost seeming to sense his confusion. Hiei almost laughs. She then gets up and retreats to the hot spring.

* * *

Kurama drops by later that day. He looks at Hiei at the doorway and he smiles weakly, then he steps into the hallway-thing leading to it. Hiei and his body seize the fox-bastard's wrist, and he manages to spit out a firm, "No." Bastard, I'm the only one that gets to see her naked, goddammit, no matter if she's not letting me at the moment. 

Kurama pulls his hand away from Hiei and scowls. "Very well, Hiei. Me'ran?"

"Yeah, working on it," she answers.

His body doesn't react well to seeing her move out of there. Her wrappings are only half on. She's got her breasts covered, most of the way, and she's wearing her underwear. Her keigoki's wet. Hiei watches Kurama's face shift to one expressing absolute horror. This will be his first time seeing all the scars fresh, emboldened by the heat of the water, and she's been picking at the scabbed over wound on her left shoulder, and it's begun to bleed down onto her chest, staining the top of the sarashi.

"Me'ran, you shouldn't pick," Kurama admonishes with a false airiness, moving closer to her so he can see the open wound. She looks up at him and moves back, turning her not-wounded shoulder to him and busily finishing wrapping the sarashi around. Hiei's not sure which she's hiding, the wound or her breasts.

"What's today?" she asks. He hasn't noticed that she was weeping again. Or, if he has, he thinks it's the hole in her shoulder.

"Sunday. The twentieth of November," he answers, looking stupidly at her, not understanding why she'd ask. Hiei tries to remember why this is important.

She nods blankly, then reaches over and pats Hiei's head. His body must look unsettled at something, and he realizes as she pets his scalp that it was, indeed, tense.

"Why have you been crying?" Kurama asks her, now, a concerned tone entering his voice. Oh, now he notices, oblivious blithering dolt.

She shakes her head, not to indicate "no" but to never mind the notion. "It's just a bit much, sometimes," she explains quietly. "The marks on my face have almost faded. The scabs are healing over. I pick at them. They scar worse, but it's faster. I know he couldn't stop himself, but dammit, it hurts." Her voice gets higher and softer as the tears move closer and closer to the surface. She's quiet after that, but even so, her breath shudders and the weak smile she uses to hide her tears behind moves over her lips, barely gracing them with its appearance at all.

Hiei and Kurama both look at one another. Hiei doesn't think he sees the intelligence behind his eyes. Kurama's looking to him to see if he reacts. He does. Hiei takes her hand in his (not his choice, that's entirely his body's idea) and he puts his other hand on the back of her head and stand on his tiptoes to kiss her. She doesn't kiss back, and she stands up and pets his head.

"Does he do that often?" Kurama asks, paling, flustered at the act.

"He sees how I cry," she responds lightly, putting her hair behind her ears and continuing to wrap herself. "So, how's the antidote coming?"

"Well enough. I should be done in a week more. Are you sure you want to give this up?" he asks, gesturing at Hiei with a twisted, almost cruel smile. Hiei's currently standing behind her, helping her with the wrapping. Sort of. He's not in control of his hands, and his hands are making more physical contact with her ribs than even she finds pleasant, and she slaps his hands several times, and she eventually pulls away from him. He moves back to her, but this time, he keeps his hands to himself.

Kurama laughs. Hiei's displeased with this and settles behind her, glaring out at the snide bastard.

When she goes to straighten her clothes, Hiei stays back with Kurama. Kurama takes the shorter man's arm in his hand, and Hiei's body throws it off him before either of them can stop it.

"I don't know if he's really conscious in there or not, Hiei, but if you are, please stop teasing me," he says softly. Hiei snarls at Kurama and follows after her. To hell with him.


	64. Happy Birthday

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.

* * *

_Happy Birthday_

Today is Me'ran's birthday. She thinks. Kurama visited last time on the twentieth, a Sunday. Today is, she's pretty sure, Thursday. Thanksgiving, this year. Or would be, anyway, if she was still at home.

Hiei's been, slowly but surely, recovering. Sort of. He talks now and again (but he doesn't sound like himself), but he still clings to her, and he has been growing to show more affection (entirely unlike him). He sleeps with her at night so closely that she wakes up with almost-burns on her skin, and last week, he'd begun to steal a kiss here and there, and one time, he even started trying to pin her on the bed, but she very politely refused. That would be beyond disrespect for Kurama, to sleep with his competition in his bed.

Me'ran kind of wishes someone would come by. Or at least some nosy ass demon that wants to eat them, give her something to do. One can only practice making balms and shit for so long.

* * *

"Meru!" calls Yuusuke's voice, suddenly. Me'ran jumps with surprise and scrambles out of her cubby hole, then goes to the entrance hall thing and looks through the hole. Yuusuke's dropped in already, and Kuwabara's on his way. Yuusuke also has a decent-sized cardboard box that he puts down against the wall before he jumps at Me'ran and puts her in a headlock, forcing her to bend backwards. Hiei moves back (he had followed her) and he stares up at Yuusuke. She's surprised at the lack of hostility, but she's a little distracted with trying to not fall down.

"The hell?" Me'ran asks politely as Kuwabara lands clumsily near her and Yuusuke.

"Happy Birthday to the Meru," sings Kuwabara loudly as Kurama lands behind him.

"Hello, Me'ran," Kurama says, looking down at the young woman. She's currently balancing in a half-back-bend with Yuusuke's arm wrapped around her neck, unable to stand up or fall.

"Why do you guys know my birthday?" she asks first. "Why do you care?" she adds.

Yuusuke helps her stand upright.

"Well, you knew mine," Kurama answers. "And that was without any source other than zodiac information. Neither Yuusuke's nor Kuwabara's has passed, yet, so there is no concern for that part."

"'Yuusuke's is in late March or early April, and Kuwabara's is in. Mid-late April," she mumbles under her breath, not really talking to them, just mumbling.

"Hey--" Kuwabara begins. Me'ran cuts him off, not wanting to explain.

"Don't worry about it. Don't you guys have school?"

"School's over. Not that I went," Yuusuke says simply, rubbing his nose. "What's up? You been doin' okay? I feel like I don't know you anymore, I haven't seen you in, like, months!"

"It's been." She has to pause to count on her fingers. A week of sleeping, two more with Sazuna, and she saw him right after that, but not very long, she went to school and stuff without seeing him. And then. A week with Kurama, and she's been here two weeks. "About six or seven weeks."

"Either way, it's too long!" he says, play-punching her in the side of the head. Then he sees the spots on her chest marked up by the healed bullet-holes. "Hey, where'd all those--"

"Don't ask, Yuusuke, you really don't want to know," she sighs tiredly. She doesn't want to explain, she really doesn't want to relive that day.

"You should be proud of those," Kurama reprimands in the quietest, friendliest, kindest tones in which she's ever been reprimanded. And possibly the most malicious, considering he's trying to get Yusuke to press for more answers.

"Jeez, Meru, being hired by Koenma's gotten you less and less work for him, huh?" Yuusuke jokes. "Seriously, where'd those come from?"

"To be fair," Kurama points out, "All the jobs we've gone on weren't really jobs as much as favors--"

"Okay, bugger off, guys, I'm tired. This lack of sunlight thing really screws with my sleep schedule, so I don't wake up during the day or night or whatever, and I've been up for a while, so it's time for me to go to bed," Me'ran interrupts loudly. Despite the earlier wishes for company, she takes it back, and she doesn't want Kurama to finish whatever statement, and she wants to go to bed.

"Oh, come on, Me'ran! We brought presents and cake and stuff!" Kuwabara objects. "Is that Hiei?" he adds.

Hiei's currently standing behind the human girl. And, as much as she hates to compare him to a child any more than she already has, he's acting like one yet again, standing with his arms crossed and sort of half-assedly glaring at the others, looking like a six-year-old (this time) who just got told he can't have his toy back.

Kuwabara moves behind her to get a better look and starts to touch him, but Hiei catches his wrist and moves it around so Kuwabara's arm twists. Me'ran catches Hiei's wrist and holds it still before he breaks Kuwabara's arm.

"Stop that," she barks. He lets go of Kuwabara and looks meek a second before assuming position behind her. His hand takes hold of her belt, and the other hand puts itself on her side.

"Good to know you keep him on a short leash," Kurama breathes. Me'ran glares at him, and she almost hits him, but Hiei heard that and is just as annoyed as she is, so she has to keep Hiei back instead of hitting the snippy red-head like she wants to.

Kurama leads Me'ran and the others back to the dining place and sets up the cake and paper plates and plastic ware. In the meantime, Me'ran and Yuusuke and Kuwabara chatter dumbly for a little while. Hiei stays on her heels, though now and again, Kuwabara will pick at him and she'll have to stop whatever damage Hiei's about to do.

"It's amazing, really," Kurama says after watching Hiei sidestep Kuwabara and push him down with one hand. "He's so close to normal, but he's still not himself."

"You must remind me," Me'ran sighs into her cake.

"How's demon world treating you?" Yuusuke asks concernedly. He looks really worried for her, so she guesses he's not expecting how well she's doing.

This is one thing she was hoping to avoid, but also wanting to bring up. She really likes Demon world. She always has. And since she's been practically living here, she's wanted to make the move permanent. She should tell the boys this. And she figures... this would be the best way to do it. So, instead of saying "it's treating me well" like she would, normally, she starts a whole conversation off the subject.

"It's great," she says first. No weird looks, yet, but she can tell Kurama's wondering what else she wants to say. So she finishes. "Promise not to get freaked out," she says quietly after a second. "But I love it here. I always have, from the first time Hiei brought me here."

Kuwabara nearly knocks over the box he's using as a table when he leans up to look at Me'ran more carefully, as if scrutiny will clarify the statement. "You mean you like it here?!" he demands loudly. He's gone bug-eyed.

Me'ran looks him in the face, keeping her gaze steady, and she cocks her head to a side and smiles, giving her face what she is sure is a disturbing expression. "I love it here. I've been hurt here less than at home," she tells him. Kurama sighs quietly. He knows what she's talking about, and what she really means, then.

"You realize, of course, that it's still dangerous here," Kurama says in a low, almost tired, voice.

"Hiei and I have had to fight off nearly twenty demons on food hunts alone. I am fully aware of it, Kurama," she answers patiently. Okay, good, they're catching on quick, I may not even have to say "I want to live here" to get it through to them.

Hiei snaps to at the sound of his name. He's bored with picking at his cake, from what he can tell, so she removes her keigoki to let him play with the burned threads for a little while to keep him busy.

The wrappings around her chest are a little lower than normal, so there's just a little bit of cleavage, and some of the gunshot wounds, the burn scars, and everything on her arms are now visible.

Yuusuke and Kuwabara both stare concernedly at her. She's surprised they're not gawping at the cleavage, but their eyes travel down her arms and over her shoulders and neck, too. She feels how their eyes are taking in every detail of every scar that's been etched into her skin. She almost takes her keigoki back, but she doesn't try--it'll keep Hiei off her if she just lets him have it, and she won't have to deal with him.

"Wow, Me'ran," Yuusuke says first. "Seriously, where'd those scars all over here come from?" he asks, pointing at the chest above her breasts. Then her boobs catch his attention, and he adds, "And have you always had boobs that big, or do they just look that way because of the sarashi?"

She sighs, hits Yuusuke in the head with the back of her hand and jerks her thumb at Kurama. "Ask him about the scars."

"Which ones, the bullet holes or the burns?" Kurama inquires innocently on purpose. The bastard's trying to bring attention to Hiei's recent attempts to wound her, too. Fucker.

"Both!" Kuwabara cries. "Meru, how does this keep happening?"

"I'm unlucky," she answers annoyedly, dropping her head to her hands before picking her head back up to give Kurama the deathglare of his life.

"It seems that Indestructible humans suffer constant running into of people that want to kill them, and after they discover their talent to survive everything, they tend to push it as far as they can. That, or it just happens to Me'ran because she insists on following Hiei, and there are several people that want to kill him and anyone around him. The gunshot wounds were suffered from a human who was losing his temper at his inability to kill her, and the burns are from Hiei at the command of the man who has poisoned him beyond reason and normal thought."

"How can you say you like it better here, Me'ran?" Kuwabara challenges. "After all that's happened to you, you wanna stay here?!"

Me'ran flicks a little icing at him with her fork. "I got the gunshot wounds in the Ningenkai. There are around a hundred and ten of them. You should see the rest of me. I'd show you, but I can't without being indecent."

Kuwabara starts to shout something, but Yuusuke hits him in the face with his plate, then pushes the cardboard box to her.

"Happy Birthday, Meru! We were gonna just leave the box in your apartment since no one knew where you were, but then Kurama came by to tell us where you were and asked us if we wanted to throw you a birthday party. We didn't get it at first, either, but then he told us about Americans doin' it every year forever."

She smiles a little.

"Keiko's gift was the cake. Yukina got you something, but it was mainly 'cos of the help you are for us, and for taking care of Hiei. Genkai said she'd give you a gift, but it'd be a slug to the head, so you'd have to go collect that one on your own time. Botan got you something. I got you something. Kurama got you something. Some demon or half demon or something got you something, but I don't think that was a birthday present. Kuwabara got you something 'cos Shizuru made him. Someone from school got you something. His family sent you something, which is where we got the box in the first place," Yuusuke lists off, looking up and counting off his fingers. Me'ran smiles a little, then looks in the box and draws out a small, plain box.

"I think that one's from--"

"Don't tell me!" she cries with a smile. "I wanna guess!"

She got a medical kit from Botan. Surprise, surprise. Yukina gave her an ornate hair clip that is really pretty, but she doubts she'd ever wear. She figures out a gift of Makai clothing (A simple shirt much like Hiei's in kind of a red-brown color and pants that come high enough to belt at the waist to keep them up in brown) came from Asano (Yuusuke explains that he caught him in her apartment and was just about to kill him when he explained everything. Yuusuke was just about to go get her a birthday present himself, so Asano dropped his own by, later), Kurama got her a demonic book on medical procedures and practices (Bloody huge.), Kuwabara gives her five hundred yen, for lack of any better ideas. Yuusuke got her a black t-shirt (since she was cussing that one day before she passed out about not having one), the someone from school got her five hundred yen (Kurama explained that the kid was actually paying her back for English tutoring and giving her a get-well present since Kurama had explained her freakishly long absence with an illness that she suffered), her family sent her a calligraphy set and...

"Well, this is great stuff, but I'm afraid to say that most of it's crap," she sighs. She does, however, change into the Makai clothes that Asano sent her (since the ones she's wearing are lookin' kinda rough) and pocket the money and medical kit and save the book for later study.

And with that, they all start talking again.

"After Kurama gets Hiei fixed up, you're comin' home, right?" Yuusuke asks first. He looks concerned again. Like he's not certain, and almost like he's worried. She looks him in the face to check and see if she can discern whatever it is he's worried about, but he's just looking hard at her, examining her face.

"Why wouldn't I?" she asks first. Then she asks herself the same question and realizes why he asked it. He did know what she meant when she said that she loves it here. She dreads going home. She wants Hiei fixed, but she doesn't want to go home. She spent the last two weeks fending off demons that wanted to eat her, she spent the week before that in a state of near-death due to dehydration and reiki loss because her boyfriend's demon dragon tried to eat her, and she's now waiting on a potion to fix the potion Hiei took that brought about the whole thing.

And she couldn't be happier.

"I think you just figured it out," Yuusuke says, leaning on his elbows. "You know we don't really even work officially for Spirit World?"

"What?" she asks, jolted for a second. Out of everything she's learned, this is probably the weirdest thing ever.

"We got fired ages back. Well. I did. These guys never worked for 'em in the first place. The crap we've been doing' lately has been nothin' but favors for Koenma."

Hiei suddenly puts his head to her back. The warmth surprises her.

"That's cute," Yuusuke chuckles. "Anyway. We called you in because... well... We really did need a healer. If Enma decided he wanted me dead--'cos of the half-demon thing--I'd be jolly well fucked. Same goes for Koenma. For a while, he's under threat of death, too. It takes something special to heal holy beings, something about Indestructibles lets 'em, because they belong in Spirit World, they just don't happen to be there--"

"Dumb question. Do all Indestructible people just feel completely out of place all the time?" Me'ran interrupts.

"Most, yes, and for exactly the reason you suspect," Kurama confirms.

"Ah. Okay. What about when I met you guys, and you took me to Spirit World?" she presses.

"A show for you. To get you to believe it. We broke in, it was very dangerous. A bad idea, for that matter, but it worked," Kurama explains impatiently. "Shut up."

"Ah. Okay, continue."

Yuusuke picks up from where he was stopped. "Well, doesn't matter, 'cos the threat's pretty much gone. You're free to do whatever you want. Enma's figured out I ain't gonna do anything stupid," Yuusuke says, "And while Koenma's still a target, he's pretty much out of the hot water. So if you wanna stay..."

Me'ran chokes for a second. He's giving her the go ahead. He's explained all that crap so she knows she doesn't have to go back. She can stay.

For a fleeting moment, she considers going back. She could even go back to her old house in America.

But fuck that. A normal life? Screaming family, a lonely apartment building, school? Fuck it!

Kurama interrupts her stream of thought.

"Me'ran? Please. I know you like it here, and I know you feel more at home here--in fact, I do, as well, and I'm sure Yuusuke does, but we are all going back, and I would appreciate it if you at least attempted to entertain a human lifestyle for long enough to know whether or not you really do prefer it here. You've spent only small amounts of time there and out of trouble at the same time."

She sighs. Kurama reaches over to pat her shoulder, but Hiei lunges at him. He pulls whatever he was going to do, because Kurama pulled back, and Hiei goes back to leaning against her back.

"Alright, Kurama. I agree to your proposal. I'll go back, but the instant I get depressed, I'm gonna start visiting here. I won't stay for good, and I'll maintain schoolwork, but I'm going to spend as much time here as possible," Me'ran grumbles.

Kurama looks slightly humbled, but he nods and bows to her. Yuusuke smiles. Kuwabara, on the other hand, looks disgusted.

"Don't you know--?"

"It's not an evil place, Kuwabara," she tells him. "I've been hurt less and by fewer things here than in Human World. I've met several murderous demons, but their goal was something besides personal gain. The fucker that gave me these," she says, gesturing at the bullet wounds in her arms, "was trying to kill me because my defiance pissed him off. He was initially trying to break me so he could enslave me. The only reason he didn't get Kurama was because my ass survived it. A hundred and ten bullets pumped through me just because I was stubborn and I had freed his other slaves. The worst demons did to me were... Well, admittedly, Touka was an evil prick, but at least his goal was to just kill me, and Tsukioka only wanted revenge for family and friends..."

Kuwabara looks kind of pitiful.

"Did you get any good pictures of the gunshots?" Yuusuke asks after a second. He's trying to lighten the mood. He's got a dumb grin on his face, but his voice was sincere, so she guesses he meant it. She shakes her head, but then she feels the heat of Hiei's head pick up off her back. There's a dart of youki from behind her (she guesses it was Hiei) and then Yuusuke nearly falls down, holding his head. His facial expression went from the goofy smile to absolute horror in about the time it took that dart of ki to hit him. "WAH!" he adds after he recovers. "Holy shit!"

"Hiei gave you a memory. I'm surprised he could find it," Kurama states simply. He's lowered his head and folded his hands into his lap. "And it's that awful sight. If any of his other ones are even remotely similar to that one, I understand the protectiveness he's been displaying."

"The hell?! That's real!? Why are you alive?!" Yuusuke demands, sitting up on his elbows and pointing at enthusiastically at Me'ran. He still looks horrified. The memory of her own image in the mirror floats back and teases her skull and tickles her gag reflex.

"Because I can't die, and that is the only reason I am alive. I can't even understand how I'm awake. I had to pry the ones in my bones out with a pair of pliers."

"Jeez! It's even worse on your back!"

"Of course it is! The holes are even bigger, back there. They scarred worse. And, in fact, the one in the middle of my back is still scabbed over."

"Can I see?" Kurama asks. Me'ran laughs a little and turns and moves the sarashi out of the way.

"It's not bad anymore. It's been a month, at the worst it looks like that time my sister bit the shit out of me," Me'ran hums with a smile. Someone touches it, and she hisses in pain, and she has to catch Hiei by his waist to save Kuwabara the missing arm. "Goddammit, Hiei, stop." He settles immediately, then breathes deeply and puts his head on her lap. His hand goes to his head all by itself, and she scratches at his hair. All three boys are staring at them, and Yuusuke's got a horrific smile on his face.

"If he doesn't remember this, Yuusuke, I ask that you not remind him," she requests pleasantly. "And I will add that if you inspire him to attack you again after I stop, I'm going to let him until he hurts you."

"Does that calm him down or something?" Kuwabara asks with a dumb look on his face. He's grinning like an idiot.

"I just like petting his head. Anyhow. So. I'm going home after he recovers, right?" she asks tiredly.

"Why not go home now?" Kuwabara asks stupidly.

"I can't have Hiei follow me around at home. I'd never be able to leave my house. At least here, I can explore," Me'ran tells him, trying to keep her patience. She's tired, now.

Yuusuke nods. Me'ran pats Hiei's arm and picks him up as she stands. The cake filled her belly, so now she's full and sleepy, so she's gotta go sleep.

"Alright, you guys know the way out, Yuusuke, carry the box back to my apartment and leave it in there. I'll keep these," she informs them, holding up the gifts she kept, "and I'm going to bed. Me and Hiei gotta sleep. Well, I do, and he tends to follow me."

"Hey!" Yuusuke whines. "Come on, we came all this way just to see you!"

"I'm sleepy!" she answers. "Bugger off," she adds. Me'ran and Hiei move back to the cubby hole and collapse into the cushion, Hiei behind her and keeping his arm around her waist. She hears Yuusuke make a loud mocking sound, but she just throws a little container of the corrosive chemical at him. He cries out. It was a weak one (she actually started testing them out on herself.), but all he can do is cry out and hop away. She smiles to herself as her body heat rises to meet Hiei's, and she's warm, now, and sleep comes easily.


	65. All Better, Now

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.

* * *

_All Better, Now_

Another week (or not quite, six days) later, Kurama comes in and wakes Me'ran up by touching her. Both she and Hiei both jump and nearly attack. She stops herself, and then she has to pry Hiei's hand off Kurama's jacket.

"I've got the potion," Kurama tells her shortly after she finishes pulling Hiei off his red-headed friend. Kurama's bruised sternum gets a finger's touch worth of healing. He hands her the small bottle afterwards. It's like an inkwell, only with a dark green liquid inside it. She uses her claws to pull the cork out of the top and hands the bottle to Hiei.

"Drink that," she tells him. He turns it up without a second thought.

And then he collapses into a small heap. She picks him up and moves him back to the cushion.

"Did you kill him?" she asks Kurama first.

"I did not. I was tempted to, but I was suffering from exhaustion, dehydration, irritation with how much you have hurt yourself just for him, and I was practically my old self once again in addition to quite angry, and I was once worse than you wanted to be at Roshi."

"Ah."

"AAGH!"

Hiei's cry startles her, and Me'ran slides on her knees to his side. His palms are pressed to his temples and his face twists in pain as his eyes screw shut and his mouth tightens. Me'ran reaches down and takes his shoulders in her hands, holding him still. He stops rolling, and, in fact, stops crying out.

"Remarkable," Kurama sneers, leaning against the wall. "I think your presence alone is nearly narcotic to him."

"Only when his mind's in this condition," Me'ran answers coldly, glowering at him. He stares at the human girl for a second, then lowers his head, as if conceding. Me'ran waits for Hiei to take his hands from his head, and he does, after a minute, but he doesn't get up, or open his eyes. He just relaxes and is apparently unconscious.

"How'd you know how to fix it?" she asks Kurama while she's waiting.

"I know these things," he answers simply, waving a dismissive hand. "I study potions and herbs and plants the way you do a fresh corpse, a new wound, or disease."

"Ah. Do you know what this is?"

"No. Just because I knew how to make it doesn't mean I know what it does or how it does it. I knew how to counter each ingredient."

Me'ran sighs and lies down next to her small lover. She feels Kurama's aura change a little as she closes her eyes and rests her hand on his head, left of his Jagan. She can feel the chemicals in his head clearing up. She can tell that he is fixing. He's probably not even really sleeping; he's just going through a lot of crap.

"You know, you could probably get close to reading minds if you could keep that level of concentration up," Kurama points out after a little while. His voice brings her out of it.

"I'd kill myself. I don't want to know what's going on in peoples' heads," she sighs.

* * *

Hiei's mind is chaos. No memories of the past weeks are relived, but everything, all at once, comes rushing back, and he can't cope with it. All his senses come rushing back all at once in an overwhelming mass. It's like being hit with a psychic hammer. It's like being pulled out of a pool of cold water in the dark in pure silence and dropped into a pool of hot water with bright light and a constant noise. It's painful; everything overwhelms him, takes over. He can't keep his feet with all the sounds suddenly assaulting his ears, and the scents in the air, and the taste of the air in the tunnels, and all the colors and lights. He hadn't realized how dulled everything was. His suddenly keen hearing has picked up Kurama's heart beating across the room, he can hear the birds in the air outside, he can hear Me'ran's clothes rustling, and every texture of the cushion, the sensation of his elbow brushing the ground as he puts his hands to his ears to block off the sounds, and the brown-red, the black, the red of Kurama's hair and the green of his eyes, and the violent blue of Me'ran's eyes.

He relaxes, after a second, and he's not sure why it suddenly got so easy, until he realizes that she's laying down with him. Kurama says something mocking, and the sound's so loud to his previously deafened ears that he almost cries out in pain at the assault.

Hiei lies with Me'ran, adjusting. His body is not coping with this easily. The thoughts, the memories, what his brain has been unable to do, that's returning. It's slower, and less painful than the return of his senses, but it's still hard to adjust for a while.

* * *

An hour has passed since it started before he can sit back up again. Me'ran fell asleep, leaned against his chest. Hiei expects her to wake up with his motion, but she doesn't. It's probably the safest, most restful sleep she's gotten yet. He looks at Kurama, who is staring at him coolly. He's looking arrogant and aloof again, remnants of his old life shining through his face. His jaw is tense and his eyes are narrowed, and this doesn't help.

"What's with that look, fox?" Hiei barks indignantly, careful to keep his voice down for the sleeping human.

"Good to have you back," Kurama answers politely. He takes Hiei's wrist and pulls him out of the pit in the wall and takes him down the hall and puts him to the wall rather roughly. Hiei puts an arm between himself and Kurama to keep his ability to shove the man away. "You think you'd be kinder to the one that offered you rescue from the Kansei potion," Kurama spits, now, scowling at the arm between them and shoving it to one side. Hiei's half-afraid that Kurama's about to rape him or something--the fox's behavior is that unsettling. But the mention of the Kansei potion distracts him.

That--"Bastard!" Hiei barks. "A Kansei potion? I'll kill--"

Kurama barks back, now, interrupting him. "You will do no such thing!"

Hiei glares at the red-haired boy, then narrows his red eyes. Why...? "He deserves it."

"Me'ran's taken your revenge for you, Hiei. And even if she hadn't, you can't go alone, and I will not let you risk her again by taking her back to Ariseki. It was terrifying taking her there in the first place. She has suffered enough for your sake," he spits heatedly. His voice picks up, and Hiei hears the rage in it. He can't imagine what's gotten Kurama this upset, but he's sure the green-eyed teenager is about to explain it to him in the bitchiest way possible. (for a man, he is such a fucking woman.) "I wish you had an idea what she's done for you. You have--She continues hurting herself for you, risking her life on your account. She's marred her skin beyond repair and scarred her poor mind beyond recognition. I don't know if you saw how she wept for you or not, but I hate seeing and hearing it, and even thinking about it, and it's not right that she's still doing this for you!"

Hiei was wrong about half of his assumption of what the fox was going to do. He didn't explain shit. "What the hell--"

"I know you saw those wounds she got from that slaver, I know you saw how she poisoned herself, and you asked her to walk into traps for you. You didn't see, but imagine what she went through, crossing the Hidosabaku, and human, no less. We were short water supply she required, so she allowed herself to." He turns his head down, trying to figure out how to say it, Hiei guesses. That, or the memory is that painful, but he brought up the mass of mush she let herself become after being shot without a problem, so... "She forwent her share of water for three days. Nearly killed her. It rained."

This part catches his attention. It rained? In. It rained in Hidosabaku? "That never even happened in your lifetime. That's not a very convincing lie. You're telling me that the desert that hasn't seen a cloud in three thousand years saw rain because of one human girl? You expect me to believe you?"

"Hiei, you've seen stranger things, especially at the cause of that human. My willpower was stronger than the weather's, so it rained to save her. I don't doubt that the last rain it saw was for the exact same reasons, millennia ago."

Hiei chokes a second, then he considers hitting Kurama. Then he does hit the fox-fucker. Kurama staggers back, reeling due to the force of the blow. He let her get so bad that it rained in Hidosabaku? "How could you let her do that?!" Hiei demands, nearly screaming. He can't imagine--Goddamned human, risking herself, and he just let her!? Bastard!

"She let her will be known, and I followed it," he answers, his voice going dark and cold, with warning tones. The red on his cheek is already fading. "It hurt me to see her like that. She wasn't even conscious the third day, and... I couldn't look at her. Now, dammit, let me finish. You do not need to keep doing these things, quit getting yourself into these things. You're deliberately stepping in over his head because you know you have a safety net that cannot fail. You cannot keep doing this."

"What else, besides getting close to death, has she done for me?" Hiei snaps. "She can't die; I don't know what the hell you're so worried about."

"Undying doesn't mean she can't feel it, Hiei! Imagine what it felt like for her, having her bones broken, imagine how having her throat slit scared her!" he barks. His voice is quiet, probably to spare the sleeping woman in the room a little way away, but the vehemence is not lost in the lack of volume. In fact, it is screaming at the diminutive demon all by itself, the heat in his voice, the rage, Hiei feels he could combust under his gold-flecked eyes. He's so trapped by the sudden transformation of the normally meek pretty boy human Kurama that he doesn't even take the red-head's words into consideration, yet. "And you cannot forget that there are worse pains than the physical! You hurt her in more way than one! Surely you've seen the marks on her! I know you know the pain of having someone you trust and love hurt you! And she even faced your Kokuryuuha!"

Hiei's face twists. He... his dragon... her... those burns on her arms and chest... I couldn't have! "My Koku--"

"You won't remember that," he says coldly, standing over Hiei, looming, looking much like Youko--so much so he's frightening Hiei. The rage in his voice is gone, but that makes him no less terrifying. "All those burns on her? And those bruises on her face and body? You saw those, didn't you? I wish you'd seen them before they healed these past three weeks--"

"It's been three weeks? Those marks? My Kokuryuuha?" Hiei stammers. It's dawned on him. Those... He felt sorry because he'd done it... He had hurt her. He beat her bloody and sent his dragon at her! How could I? I didn't have the will power to stop... and... That's... "I couldn't have," the red-eyed man says quickly, struggling to remember, drawing a complete blank. Kurama glowers at him, the eyes still flecked with gold, raging and fierce.

"You're fortunate you weren't in control when you did it. I swore to myself that if you ever hurt her, I'd kill you. I forgive you this time, but I do not want her comatose because of you. She even tortured Roshi for you. I'm not sure what's worse, watching you, in all essences, beat her up, or watching her torture a man. She whimpered in her sleep for days after that," he tells Hiei, scowling and turning his face away.

Hiei, on the other end of the spectrum of speech, is lost for words. I attacked her? And. She.Torture? Her!? My dragon?!

"At least you see how important this is," he says in a darkly satisfied voice as he rocks his weight onto his heels and crosses his arms, showing Hiei that he's done pinning the shorter one to the wall and scaring him. Hiei starts to move, but then Kurama shoots an arm out and blocks him off. "And--one thing before you return to her, Hiei--She's under the impression that she's better off living here than in the Human World. Please convince her otherwise."

"Why?" Hiei asks, relieved to get a distraction from the awe and horror that Kurama's story has induced. "If she likes it here, she should live here."

Kurama scowls. Hiei, desperate to see her again, almost turns to run, but he stops. (knowing she tortured someone for him... and... he hurt her... He hurt her! That's beyond... He used to kick her a little, but he'd never actually...) "What did I do to her?" he asks Kurama, staring up into his hateful green gaze. The red-head looks sincerely surprised to see how hurt he is by this.

"You broke her arm. And one of her feet. And generally hit her a lot. She didn't fight back; else she'd have suffered less. She couldn't disable you with her mind-chemical tricks because of the potion. And the Kokuryuuha. She stood up to that well--she held consciousness for a long time after that hit her, long enough to torture Roshi into telling us what he did to you and heal her arm and cuss for a long time," he sighs, looking much softer. Hiei nods. That. Human girl. That's why... she loves him. He gets a weird bubble of joy in his chest and throat when this whispers into his mind. She loves me. That's why...

Hiei runs to her again and slides to a halt next to her. The bruises on her face are yellowing, now, old and almost done fading. The burns are still clear, and the... the two scabs on her shoulders...

"_It bit her_," Kurama explains in a Makai tongue as Hiei reaches out to touch at the scabs. "_She could only just hold it off. She rode its mouth for a long time._"

"Hiei," she sighs, suddenly, and he jumps and sits back to look at her better. Her bright blue eyes are staring up at him, and her face is serene. Her mussed hair hangs around her face in a matted halo, and her lips are curled up in the faintest smile. It's not that she hides her smiles; it's just a trick to getting them to show. "You're all the way back," she says after a second, and the smile lights up her whole face, and she pulls herself up with weak grips on his cloak and wraps her arms around him and presses her cheek to his.

"Me'ran," Hiei grunts. He wants to tell her he's sorry, to let her know that he didn't want to, he had no idea, but he doesn't know how, and the words he's thinking are simply tying his tongue up. His hand goes to her shoulder, but the instant he puts his palm down on the scabbed flesh, her arm shoots up, but then she slows herself and breathes, then she takes his wrist in her hand, then lifts it from the wound easily.

"Watch that, Hiei, I'm tender," she warns quietly, hiding her face so he won't see the pain.

"What happened?" Hiei asks. He knows what happened, but he wants to know if she'll tell him, or if not, what she will tell him.

"Don't worry about it." Her tones are light. She isn't going to tell him. That. Fucking human, only she could do this to him. He feels bad for this! Why the hell should he feel bad for hurting her, who can't even really die, who is in no danger taking it, after he's killed so many other people? And. She forgives him! She forgives his weakness, to the point that she's not even going to breathe a word of her pain--the pain at his hands--to him! She's gracing him with ignorance of his misdeeds, not letting him know he hurt her!

Kurama looks annoyed at her lack of an explanation, almost as annoyed as he's amazed. He, again, wants to apologize. But he can't get the words out of his mouth.

"I told him what happened, Me'ran," Kurama says softly. She looks at him and scowls a little.

"Why? He didn't need to know, and it doesn't change anything. I'm already healed, doesn't even hurt. Except when I run my head into something, but that's normal." Kurama is even more displeased by this.

Then, apparently, she's thinking about it. Her unhappiness becomes more evident, the scowl growing and her eyes darkening, narrowing, until she crosses her arms and glares at him, then slams her palm against the cushion. "Minamino Shuuichi, goddammit!" she cries, finally. "There's no point in making him feel guilty over something he had no control over, and doesn't even remember! Shithead, it's not his fault, it's that fucker with the gaping hole in his throat and fingernails missing's fault! He got his, too, you don't have to be so shitty to Hiei! He didn't do it because he wanted to, he couldn't even control himself, and he couldn't even know what he was doing to me! Judging by you having to tell him, he still doesn't know! Roshi got his, that's all that matters!"

"What?" Hiei demands. The defense for his case is not familiar, but he's dismissing that over the statement of "fucker with the gaping hole in his throat". "What did you do to Roshi?" Hiei asks her.

The angry look drops immediately, and she looks sick, suddenly. Her face blanches, and her shoulders drop and her eyes grow and her mouth twists. He notices her thumb passing over her fingernails, pressing each one to her finger. She lowers her head. "I um. He was. He refused to tell us what he did to you. So. So I, uh, I took the fingernails off a few of his fingers... and then... to keep him from commanding you to do something to us while we were leaving... I fixed it so he couldn't talk by cutting his, uh, his neck open... kinda like what keeps happening to me, only a little bit bigger so he couldn't sew it shut like I could."

She closes her eyes and buries her head in her knees. She. An empath. A human girl that won't even fight for her own well-being, wouldn't lift a claw to stop him from hurting her... tortured someone for him. Hiei can't even begin... What the hell... This is love? It completely changed her. He wants... there has to be... a way... dammit!

Hiei can't stand it anymore. He can't look at her again. That's. Holy shit. He's. That's. Goddammit, that's not fair.

"I was going to torture him myself, but I didn't have any tools or any of my plants. She told me to move before I had even started anything, and she knew exactly what she was doing. I was surprised at how well she did, using psychological torture first, and scaring him. It's taught me to never underestimate anyone. Even I didn't expect such behavior out of her, ever, and I already knew there were depths to her that would be beyond anyone, even you, to reach," Kurama says quietly.

"You're serious. She really... you really..." Hiei stutters, looking between her and Kurama. She's still curled into herself, looking highly uncomfortable.

After a little bit, Me'ran recovers, humming a song, probably to distract her, and then she sits upright. "It's time to go home, now, right? Or back to Japan, at least."

Kurama nods, then glares at Hiei. He leads the way out of there, then.

"Watch out for every third ladder rung," Me'ran warns from behind him.

* * *

Hiei can hear her and Kurama talking as they clean up whatever mess they made, here. Hiei waits at the top of the hole out of there and listen.

"Kind of a shame. He was so sweet when he was out of his mind. I missed the shit out of him, but it was still kinda cute."

"Maybe he'll remember some of that," Kurama suggests.

"Yeah, right." And then it's quiet, and then he hears the rustle of clothing usually accompanied by hugging. "Thanks for not poisoning him."

He chuckles darkly. Hiei knows that laugh. He really wanted to poison me, that bastard! And she knew that! And she trusted him anyway!

"We'll keep the jokes to a minimum. It seems he really doesn't remember anything." The statement brings the passing time to his attention. Three weeks? Is that all it's been? It felt like an eternity! And... They don't think he knows anything. So let's leave it at that. If he corrects them, he'll have to tell them how much he remembers, and that will require a story he doesn't feel like telling. And. Me'ran. His Kokuryuuha. Goddammit.

He's proud, again, for his choice. His choice in mate may be human, but dammit, she's strong.

But. She's. He hurt her. She hurt herself for him. She's done that so many times.

He doesn't deserve it. Kurama was trying to tell him that before.

She comes up the ladder and kneels next to him. "Hiei? You alright?" She reaches up and touches at his temple. He feels her doing something, but she doesn't change anything that he feels.

"Let's go," he says, brushing her away and standing up and leading the way out the door.


	66. Back Yet Again

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.

* * *

_Back Yet Again_

It's the beginning of December. And it's fucking cold, she learns when she gets back to the Human World. Hiei flickers out of sight as soon as the three of them touch down. Kurama seems a little distressed by something and is quick to leave her side, after she gets to her apartment.

Her showerhead is welcome. She's never been so happy for soap, and she's even happier for shampoo. She kind of wants Hiei to drop by, but he doesn't.

And when she gets out of the shower, she gets dressed in normal clothes.

On the table in her dining room, there are several stacked gifts. Some brown parcels, some little colorful bags, all labeled with the kanji of her various names, "Erufib-kun" being the dominant one and Meruran being second most common. She looks at a couple. Classmate gifts. And a card is on top of it all, saying "Get well, soon."

"Ah, so Kurama explained my absence with sickness," she mutters to herself, remembering vaguely that he had told her that. She moves around the table. There are books stacked high, and a piece of paper with her assignments written in a too-neat-to-be-human handwriting on it. She can see that some of the homework is already written out, math problems already copied in her usual fashion, though not completed, and some of the social studies and literature studies are written out and so forth, mostly in girls' handwritings, and even a few of the boys'. She sighs quietly and sits down.

* * *

Hours later, there's a knock on the door, and the sounds her door makes when it's opened. "Me'ran?" Kurama calls as he comes in.

"Bugger off, I'm trying to study this shit that Ueda seems to think I need to know," she answers. She wouldn't normally be so rude, but she's growing frustrated with her math.

"He doesn't like you," Kurama states simply, deciding to make conversation, she guesses. She looks up at him, then sighs and stabs her book with her pencil.

"I am fully aware of that. Something about the lack of respect. This is stupid, 'cos I've been real nice to him, I don't even do him like I do the others. He just hates me," she sighs.

"Teachers will occasionally sense what is in a student by nature," Kurama jokes lightly. Me'ran glares at him, then drops herself over her books.

"Gooood-damn, this is boring!"

"Compared to fighting for your life and your lover's soul? Of course it is," he chuckles. She looks at him again. Something's wrong with his face, but she doesn't tell him that she sees this, yet. Instead, she addresses the matter he's trying to bring up.

"How the hell do you prefer this life over the Makai?" she demands unhappily.

He looks at the human girl levelly, looking beyond sincere, and he smiles a little and folds his hands in his lap. "Well. I have things that I found worth staying for."

Me'ran narrows her eyes at him from the tabletop. "And do you expect this of me? Minamino-kun. That's stupid. You freaks brought me to Japan from America based entirely on the fact that nothing there was keeping me there, and I had an entire family and school and a life. There's even less for me here! What would you suggest?"

He laughs quietly, then sighs and leans back on his elbows. "You still have several demon friends around here, don't you?" he asks after a second.

"Asano's half demon. He comes by now and again. And. I'll go out and see a couple of Hiei's original crew. They're not quite friends, though. In fact, some of them feel they owe me. Most don't, because they had their treasure taken back, but some think that me saving their ass from whatever trap, either being hit with it myself or healing when they got hit with it was better than losing why they were there in the first place. Mainly the ones I saved more than once or got hit for."

"It's astounding how quickly you adapted to all of this," Kurama marvels. She thinks he's trying to distract her, now. "It was easy for you to believe and accept demons, Demon World, and all the super human powers, even before you visited the world and developed your own powers."

"Oh, I went mad long ago," she tells him, shoving her math away. "Fuck this; I'm already sick of it." So then she starts on the numerous boxes.

* * *

"Okay, Kurama, what exactly did you tell them I was sick with?" Me'ran asks curiously after pulling out the five hundredth box of medicated soap.

"I told them it was chicken pox that had gotten particularly severe for lack of proper attention, since I was not at home and you were too nervous around my family to alert them to the problem," he confesses with a sheepish grin. She nearly falls down laughing. "I had to explain to Sawada-sensei, since he had your record and knew that you had already had chicken pox. I think we are both fortunate that our Head Teacher is a demon himself, else we wouldn't be able to get away with half of what we have."

"I'm aware," she sighs.

After a while of quiet, Me'ran sighs and puts away all the medicated soap in one of the larger boxes and stuffs that in her closet. If nothing else, she can play chemistry set with it.

"Me'ran?" Kurama asks tentatively.

"Yeah?"

"Do you really feel like you belong in Demon World?"

Me'ran pauses, letting the little ribbon-wrapped bag fall out of her lap. Is that what that feeling is? Or is it just happiness? She's always pleased when there's a new someone to help or something, but would that really be why she's so eager to stay in Demon World, or is it because... "I don't know. But when I come back here, I suddenly feel like there's something wrong with where I am. It could be that I just don't belong here and I know it more than I do there."

He sighs heavily. He's not happy with that answer. "Give it a month, here. If you still don't like it here by the next month, then we'll see what we can arrange."

Me'ran smiles, then leans forward and kisses Kurama's face.

"Thank you. Now get out of my apartment, I gotta start figuring out Christmas presents."

He walks to the door, then he pauses, wanting to tell her something. He draws the preparatory breath, but he lets it out and closes the door. She follows him with her eyes, then decides she has to know what it is, and she gets up to follow him.

"Kurama?"

"Not so loudly in public," he snips quietly. He turns sideways to look at her, but his face is so... angry that she doesn't think it's related to her calling him by the wrong name.

"Minamino-kun?" Me'ran corrects. He looks at her and scowls a little, then turns away. He doesn't want to face her. "What's wrong?" she asks insistently. She almost runs to him to see his face, or ask him what's the matter, but she already knows he's pissed and it's beyond her help.

To prove this, he shrugs, then continues walking away.


	67. Keeping One's Word

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.

* * *

_Keeping One's Word_

Recovering is quick. Ish. Not as fast as she'd like it, because she has to wrap up her forearms for school.

The first week home is long and dull. She has to work to catch up with everything, but it's still easy.

And within two weeks, she is already back to fully healthy, sort of, and she's strong and able-bodied, and she's back to helping Kurama tutor their classmates and underclassmen in the library.

"Alright, Fukio, let's see what you remember from yesterday," Me'ran sighs annoyedly, leaning over his paper and trying to keep her hair out of the way. It's grown a full four inches since she got to Japan, and the shit is just long enough to get really annoying. But she doesn't have the time to get it cut, and she doesn't want to cut it on her own.

Fukio is a constant student of hers. He can't speak English to save his life. _"My dog is b-l-o... b-l-aun."_

"So close. Make the "rr" sound, would you?" she requests. He does. She nods, then. _"Brown."_

_"B. Brown."_

"Very good. Now, translate this into English," she commands, writing out a sloppy, simple sentence, with one adjective.

"Erufib-san?" Kurama calls softly in a voice that she hardly recognizes as his. He gets quieter at school.

"Minamino-kun?" she answers, standing up to look at him.

He scowls and switches to English before he asks her, _"Have you seen Hiei lately?"_

_"No. Why English?"_

_"Because I thought I should avoid speaking in Japanese about our mutual friend. Did he tell you where he went?"_

_"He left a note. Which would have been better if it were legible, I am under the impression that he wasn't quite sure how to read or write. It was like looking at my own writing on a creative spree."_

He almost laughs, barely leaving it at a snort and ducking his head to grin, and then he fails and finally allows himself a quiet chortle. Me'ran ignores him and looks to see what her pupil's doing (waiting on her, staring up with doe-eyes), and checks his work.

"Write it in English, then get started on this one," she commands, writing out another one before turning back to Kurama and crossing her arms and switching back to English. _"He didn't know how to read or write, did he?"_

_"No, no, he didn't. I imagine that what he knew he learned from you or me. Yuusuke might have written it for him, or taught him how. Was it in English or Japanese?"_

_"Japanese,"_ she answers idly, staring down at Fukio's paper. _"Dun really matter. It said he was going to Demon World. I think. I could read "kai", and there was only one symbol in front of it, and the only other option there would be the Reikai."_

Kurama makes a pleased, or amused, sound, but she ignores it, deciding, instead, to keep her attention on the dumbass that has been spending his semester absolutely butchering her home language. "No, no, no, Fukio, dammit, what's wrong with you that you don't know the difference between sees and ees? You have bees and dees and pees and cues just right, how could you forget something this simple?"

"I'm sorry, Erufib-kun, I just--"

"Fukio-kun, please remember that Erufib-san is not a male classmate," Kurama interrupts in the hardest version of a soft, sweet voice Me'ran's ever heard.

"Mind your own business, Minamino-kun, I use boy language and wear boys' clothes, they can call me 'kun' if they want," she snips unhappily. "I'm already chewing on him for his English; I don't need you taking a chunk out with corrections on his home language." Me'ran picks up Fukio's paper and crosses out mistakes, then writes corrections next to them, and gives him another sentence. "Try again."

After a little while longer, Kurama finishes teaching his student about polynomial equations, and he sits down near Me'ran, watching her watch Fukio continue fucking up her language.

_"Merlin?"_ Kurama inquires after a while. _"Is there something wrong? You seem exceptionally short-tempered with me, today._

_"You know what the source of my ire is?"_ she finally grumbles in response, hoping that the use of English that isn't commonly employed even by its speakers would fuck with him. It doesn't.

_"Well, there are many things it could be. I imagine that... Among them could be the disappearance of your lover, playing teacher for the many, many students who suffer an inability to learn your language, having to be at school, having me at school to be unhappy when people call you a title that is almost exclusively male... Am I getting any closer to the mark? I was assuming it was Hiei's absence, especially after you lived in such close quarters with him for the month and got accustomed to that."_

Me'ran scowls. Yes, that has been bothering her, agreed. It's a week 'til Christmas, it snowed last week, but she stills sleep with her window open in hopes Hiei will come back. This is starting to scare off the neighbors. (They'd begun to visit because they found out she lived alone, and that she would disappear for weeks at a time, and they were curious.) But that wasn't it. _"You're so close, Minamino-kun,"_ she sighs, cutting her eyes at him. _"It's not only that my lover has vanished from me with only an almost perfectly illegible letter as an explanation, but also that you forced me to give you my word that I would not go to the only place that I have ever felt I belonged, denying me the feeling of even being really alive. I am now stuck in the human world, tutoring incompetent human children, hoping that I find time in my completely empty day to finish my homework. The hardest part about my days, now, is finding someone who can give me money so I can use the printer at the library for my research pictures. The blood staining my hands has finally faded, I have had no life-or-death situations to stress me out, and I have to fight to remember that I am alive because lately, my heart rate hasn't gotten over fifty friggin' beats per minute, let alone the fact that I haven't suffered any sort of pain or stress, and it's killing me."_

_"Keel-eeng...?"_ echoes Fukio. She sighs and smacks the back of his head. "That means killing, right?" he presses anyway.

"That it does. It's really close to English, good job for figuring that out. You've got your verb and adjective in the wrong places again," she says, drawing indicative arrows to the offenders.

"You're not going to hurt anyone, are you?" the boy asks her with a strangely fearful look in his face. It's been a long time since she got that look...

"Do I look like I could hurt anyone?" she asks with a soft sigh, gesturing at her face with her open hand. Fukio looks at her for a second, then his eyebrows lower.

"That was a silly question, Erufib-san," Kurama chuckles quietly. "Of course you do."

"Which is funny, I couldn't hurt anyone if they were trying to kill me," she sighs.

_"As has been the situation several times, has it not?"_ Kurama chortles darkly.

"Go the hell home," Me'ran snaps unhappily, whirling almost violently to face him. Her voice is stronger than she means it to be. Fukio jumps a little bit, and he moves back, as if expecting a fight between the gentleman of the school and the unusual girl from America who has yet to do anything that would suggest she would fight. Is the tension that easily picked up on?

"I wanted to talk with you. And I would prefer to stay in the language that wouldn't be butchered by my speaking it," Kurama informs her. He also looks like he's expecting her to attack, standing taller than normal, kind of drawing on his usually hidden power, and he feigns putting his hair behind his ear to discreetly draw out a seed.

"Are you two...?" Fukio asks quietly. Me'ran's not sure if he's about to ask if they're having a lovers' spat or if they're about to fight.

"Keep quiet and I'll let you go home now," she offers quickly. "No, we're not," she adds. "Please try to study your English."

Fukio nods, then gets up and pushes his chair to.

"Are you sure you can trust that?" Kurama asks, waving a hand after the young man running down the hall.

"Yeah, he's crushing on me," Me'ran answers with a sigh. "Let's get going."

* * *

Kurama walks home with Me'ran, getting steadily farther away from anyone who would care about the two of them or the conversation they're having.

"What's wrong?" Kurama asks, once they are a sufficient distance from the school.

"I want to go to the Makai," Me'ran whines quietly. "I'm giving it a month, and I feel dead, Kurama, it's awful. It doesn't help that Hiei's gone, but he'd probably just take me to the Makai anyway, 'cos he knows what it's like, every time he says 'home' when he's talking about the Makai, I can hear how he means it, he knows how I feel. The only connections I have are the few demons I still talk to. It's worse than being taken from America, which is sad, 'cos I lived there for sixteen and a half years, this is like friggin' dying!"

Kurama gives her a cocky sidelong look and holds it 'til she catches it, at which point she drops her shoulders and leans down, as if weighed down, and she tosses her arms a bit. That look is related to the fact that her version of dying is nothing like a normal person's and she has no idea what the hell dying is really like. "Dammit, you know what I mean!" she shouts as she stands back up. She sighs, now, and leans against a wall along the sidewalk. Kurama slows in his pace to look back at her until he realizes she's not moving. He stops and turns to face her completely.

She's relatively certain that he's trying to change the subject when he opens his mouth again. "You're not looking so well. Have you been sleeping, Erufib-kun?" He reaches over to touch at her forehead with his palm, and he draws his hand back with a frown. "Come, Me'ran. I'm under the impression that you are sick. What could be causing this?"

She chuckles, then sighs again, and starts walking again. They're not far from her apartment complex, now.

"Me'ran," Kurama insists, following her at a trot. "Me'ran!" he barks more firmly, taking hold of the back of her jacket. "What's wrong with you?!"

"I want the Makai, and I want my boyfriend! I'm bored out of my mind, I feel so miserable here, it's beyond words!" she cries, whirling around and slugging him in the chest. He catches her wrist after the blow lands and steps back, wincing, holding his hand to the spot she just hit.

The truth is, without the Makai, living day to day in the Ningenkai, not having to fight for her life or save anyone else's, not being almost-dead... She's not exaggerating about how it makes her feel, nearly dead, hollow, empty, not-even-real. Something that should have driven her insane, knowledge that should have driven her insane is her safe place. Here, she feels empty and alone and vulnerable, like everything around her is dangerous, but in the safest way. Shopping, cooking, homework, trying to fake normal life, when she knows full well there is something so much better...

"I'm coming with you to your apartment," Kurama warns as he lets her go. She starts to run, then, trying to outrun him, but she fails to take into consideration that he will eventually be at her apartment, and he could even go through Yuusuke's house to get to her apartment, over the balconies.

When she storms into her room, already barefoot for having kicked off her shoes on the way there (barefoot just feels better.), she only just keeps herself from slamming the door, and she starts for her bedroom, pulling off her jacket along the way. Before she turns into her room, though, she's greeted with a mass of magenta. She instantly swings, taking the offensive quickly, and she lets out a series of attacks before she finally steps back.

"Kurama, goddammit!" she shrieks. He has fallen backwards, laying on his back and holding his nose and the left side of his face. She leans down to heal his broken nose, and the bruises, or what will become bruises soon, that she left. He blocked off a lot of them, but she was fast, and her onslaught was a collection of pretty rough attacks.

"I'm sorry, I was unaware that you would be that upset," he says softly. "Your window is open. This is possibly the source of your sickness."

"I don't care," she spits. Lying, of course, but what she really wants to do is retreat into her room to weep.

"Me'ran, please, I know you're upset, but this is no reason to hurt yourself."

"I couldn't care less, Kurama. I can't die from it. In fact, I'd like to see a cold try to kill me. A dragon composed entirely of evil fire, the hottest fire known to any species, tried to eat me a couple of weeks ago, dear, there is jack shit chance I'd let a cold finish me off."

Kurama stands in her doorway, then sighs dejectedly. She knows full well he's going to be keeping tabs on her, but for now, he's helpless.

"Keep your hair dry when you go to bed," he grumbles. "Don't expect him to show up any time soon, and are you aware that he is fully capable of opening the window himself?"

She smirks a little. "Call it romanticism, but I've always thought of him as kinda needing the welcoming feeling. Closing the door on him would be rude," she sighs. "I have three extra covers, I'll be fine. You should go home, your mom'll worry."

He sighs, then moves toward her and he starts to kiss her cheek, but she pulls back and knocks him in the side of the head gently with her palm.

"Uh-uh-uh, Minamino-kun."

"Yes, ma'am, Erufib-san. I'll see you tomorrow. Please, understand that I am simply worried for you. I'm sorry you miss the Makai so much. It didn't occur to any of us that the demon nature that inspired our liking for you would be the catalyst to problems of this level. Give yourself another couple of weeks, and I'm going to be keeping an eye on you. Understood?"

"Go home, Kurama."


	68. Christmas

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.

_Christmas_

Me'ran stays in Human World, as per her agreement. She gets Kurama's Christmas gifts, she gets Hiei's, and a few other things (she trades services for goods a lot, and then trades goods for other goods), through the demons that run errands for her, ones willing to do things for her after she gave them gifts of some kind, poisons and medicines and healing or just stuff around the apartment, and, in fact, she feeds some, here and there (the non-human-eaters.).

And Gods help her; she hates the living shit out of it. She'd rather be dying in the Makai with her intestines being slurped up like spaghetti while she watched than living here, doing school work, having nowhere to hang out but school, which is mainly only because she's still helping kids with English class (Which is stupid, her English is worse than some of theirs because, dammit, she was an American and she does not speak proper English.) and she goes home, eats dinner, and goes to bed. She's even started getting a slight tummy and very lazy. The least that could happen is Hiei showing up, but that's stopped happening, too. She worries, but Kurama assures her he's safe. She believes him for lack of any other ideas.

Today is Christmas day. She is alone in her apartment. She's already gone to school (her English teacher asked her a lot of questions about her country's celebration, so she became the subject of attention again), and she's come home, changed into the Makai clothes she got for her birthday sorta, and she's trying to decide whose gifts she wants to hand out now and whose she wants to wait for. It doesn't help that she has no recollection of ever knowing where Keiko or Kurama or Kuwabara live, and she doesn't know how to get a hold of any of them, other than through Yuusuke, and she doesn't wanna do it that way.

And worse, she still hasn't seen Hiei. She's been asking every demon she's seen, and they haven't seen him, either. No one that strong has been through, yet, for that matter.

She's about to go to Yuusuke's with an armload, but she's cut off by the feel of him crossing over to her room. Yuusuke's irritating voice rings through the air.

"Meruuuu!" calls Yuusuke from the balcony. "_Merry Christmaaas_! Are you home?"

"Here, Yuusuke," she says, moving to her bedroom and into his view. "Do me a favor and give Kuwabara and Keiko their gifts from me, would you?" she asks, already moving back to the dining room after he's seen her.

He moves into the apartment and looks around, then smirks widely when he sees the assortment of things around her not-recently-cleaned room.

"I'm impressed, Meru. Your room looks as bad as mine," he says, looking around and crossing his arms.

"Looks is where it ends, Yuusuke. My crap's not just crap I threw around, it's stuff I can't put anywhere else. People gifted me a lot of this stuff for healing them in Demon World or even here."

He laughs quietly. "So, what, do you just wander the streets and heal guys randomly? Don't you know how dangerous that is?"

"Well, last time anyone tried to hurt me while I was healing them, Hiei cut off his hand, and that was a long time ago," Me'ran replies with a shrug.

He nods slowly. "I see. Keep him with you; I can see why no one would mess with you. Kurama should be on his way over; he called and told me to tell you that. Where's my gift?"

Me'ran makes no mention that Hiei hasn't been with her, and instead tosses him a small wrapped present, just like Kuwabara's. He turns it over in his hands a few times, then shakes it next to his ear. No hints. "What is it?"

"Open it later and you'll find out," she says with a grin. He picks at a corner and she slaps him in the head.

"Kay! Jeez! What'd you get Kurama?" he asks, looking around the room for something that could be for him.

"Plant collection," she answers. "It's in the dining room."

"And what--"

"A sword. Keiko's is a Kimono. It's a really pretty pink color that should contrast her hair and eyes well. Yukina got a red one, to contrast her hair and bring out her eyes. I got Genkai a stress ball."

He grins. "I wanna deliver that, just so I can see her reaction."

"Good, here, and take Yukina's, too, while you're at it."

"Me'ran?" Kurama calls quietly from her doorway. Yuusuke leans against the railing of her balcony, but doesn't say or do anything.

"Minamino-kun!" Me'ran says cheerfully before sliding into the dining room and picking up the terrarium and carrying it with her to the door

"What--" he begins when he sees them. She cuts him off.

"Merry Christmas, thank you, and happy birthday!" she announces loudly. "The Demon plants, I was sure to get non-self-aware kinds so no one would ask dumb questions, are the thank you, the ones from Africa are the happy birthday, and the American ones are merry Christmas," she adds. And, then, as an afterthought, and to get that face on Kurama's face to go away, she reassures him, "I didn't go to the Makai myself, I had one of the demons that visit from time to time go for me." Kurama leans down and looks at the plants. She was gonna give them to him as seeds, but she doesn't intend to let him try to use these as weapons. Plus, she was bored and really needed something to take care of here. Plants aren't meat, but they're alive, and that's good enough.

"You gotta be careful with the African ones. They're used to hot weather," she warns after she puts the plants on the floor.

He nods blankly, then pulls one out gently and holds it up to his face. "Wonderful specimens. Did you grow these yourself?" he asks, hardly able to whisper, probably for the awe.

"Yeah. Bastards," she hums proudly. She smiles a little when she finally figures out that he's beyond delighted--he's just not showing it. Yuusuke laughs a little, because he sees it, too, she guesses.

"Careful, Meru, he's already got a crush on you, I'd hate to see it get worse because of a Christmas present," Yuusuke whispers to her.

Me'ran laughs to herself, already dreading the idea, and she sends Yuusuke on his merry little way.

After he gets done admiring the plants, Kurama sits down across from her at the table in the dining room. He wants to talk to her. He doesn't say anything for a little while, though, until he finally sighs. "You can go back to the Makai," he finally concedes. He doesn't look her in the face, and he keeps his head low to show his humility.

"What?" she asks, startled. She heard him, she's just not sure she really believes her ears.

"I've noticed. There's a decline in your grades, even though you're no longer attempting to kill yourself for Hiei's sake; you're depressed and quiet and you keep to yourself even more than normal; Ueda-sensei has complained to me about even more misbehavior--"

"That man has no idea what my misbehavior is if he thinks mouthing off is bad," she objects annoyedly. "I don't hit him back, and no matter what he thinks, he broke his hand on my head of his own volition, and I didn't do a goddamned thing. You know as well as I do that if I was that pissed off, I'd have left before I lost my temper enough to do anything to him."

She's speaking of an incident last week that left his right hand's knuckles wrapped into a cast from the wrist down. The bastard was hitting her for mouthing off, and he hit wrong and too hard, right on her forehead, so his knuckles snapped. She considered it poetic justice, though she can't say she wasn't considering just doing it herself through healing.

"--and even Hanajima-sensei has mentioned a certain irritability and a tendency to sleep in her class. More than you used to," Kurama finishes.

"She's my English teacher, right?" she asks, having trouble remembering which one Hanajima is. (Hanajima is her English teacher, and her History teacher is Hanako, and they look just alike, and she calls both of them Hana-chan-sensei-sama as kind of a joke, so she confuses them, sometimes.)

"Yes. She likes you, and she's still complaining about your behavior."

"She interviewed me on an American Christmas, earlier today. And made me say it in English. And then started correcting my English because I am an American, goddammit, and I do not speak English." Me'ran smiles proudly. She was speaking on behalf of her whole country (and after looking up online what Bush is doing to it, she's terribly happy to be more than halfway across the globe from him.) when she refused to correct what she was doing to her home language. Who cares if I finish my damn sentence with a preposition?

Kurama laughs, then leans forward against the table on his elbows. "But I'm under the impression that without danger in your life, you will eventually lose your temper, and I don't think anyone would appreciate that."

"No, dead people are things to dodge when you can," Me'ran agrees sweetly.

"Before I forget, I have gifts for you as well."

Kurama leaves a second, goes back to the living room and returns with a small tray with little plants on them. The smell of some of them reminds her of demon world, though only a few.

"What are they?" she asks, looking at them one at a time, sorting the ones from the Makai from the ones from the Ningenkai, and then sorting the ones she knows from the ones she doesn't know.

"Herbs. I use them for what healing I can do. I thought they'd be useful," he says slowly. "How's Hiei been? Have you found him?"

"No," she answers bleakly. And she hasn't. She misses the fuck out of him, too. She's not sure how to find him, but she's about to set out on a quest to find the mother fucker and drag him back home by the hair. Enough of that. "What are these for specifically?" she asks, putting them on her table and looking at them. There are little tubs of balms and collections of leaves in the tray already.

* * *

So, now she's got a balm for scars, small wounds/scratches, she's got antidotes, she's got pain relievers and medicines for fever and nausea and antibiotics and... Wow. This really is gonna be useful.

"This stuff is really cool, thank you much, Kurama!" she sings. For some reason, the news about her being able to start being in Demon World again made her whole day better, and she is officially in a good mood.

"Some of these may be more or less effective, varying with who you're using them on. In fact, I've known some to work on demons and not humans, and the other way around. The pain relievers work pretty much no matter who you give them to. I've been working on something to make them more potent, but I haven't had long to work with them."

She smiles at him, and packs the ones already made into her backpack (that is now officially accompanying her to Demon World from now on), and she goes back to the balcony to look around, then she follows Kurama out the door. Hiei's gone, so there's nothing for her here.

"Where are you going?" he asks her.

"I don't know. Hiei's busy. I figured I could do with a little company," she mumbles weakly.

He looks at her concernedly, as if suspecting an ulterior motive, and he smiles a little. She offers a genuine smile in return, and he settles in his skin.

* * *

"So, how has your Christmas been? I know we don't make it nearly the event here as it was back in America, probably for lack of such a Christian population." Kurama's attempting to make conversation. Me'ran finds that she wants to go back... home. To demon world. But she wants Hiei to take her, and he's out being somewhere. So she gives in to Kurama's attempt.

"Christmas isn't religious anymore. It's as much a commercial event there as it is here. To be fair, they stole it from the pagans in the first place," Me'ran sighs. "I think you stole Christmas from us."

He laughs quietly. She suddenly remembers they're walking, and she's not sure where he's going.

"Ah, where are you going?" she asks him.

"I was going to go back to my house. I was intending to spend Christmas with my mother and her fiancé and my future step-brother," he says simply.

"Oh, really? Congrats on the mom getting married thing. And I'm sorry about the brother. I loved mine, but gods, they were obnoxious," she says with a grin.

He nods and smiles a little. "I'm happy my mother will be happy. Are you going to be alright?"

She jams her hands into her pockets. She doesn't know why he's asking, but she can guess that it's related to how she's been behaving lately.

"I should have gotten you some new robes," he says with a smile. "Those are not proper female attire, nor are they particularly well-made."

"I've got plenty, I just prefer these," she objects with a friendly argumentative tone.

He nods, then holds his hand out. "Would you like to meet my family?"

She doesn't scream "NO" like she wants to, and, instead, she goes the polite route. "Not particularly. I don't think Shiori-san wants to meet Erufib from school in her Demon World robes while she smells of strange flowers and has permanently bloodstained hands," Me'ran hums lightly, trying to hide the dread of the idea. "I'll see you later, 'kay?"


	69. Hiei's Gift

HEY! TO ANYONE IN THE TENNESSEE, WEST TENNESSEE, MADISON COUNTY, OR JACKSON AREA!

THERE IS A NEW ANIME CLUB CALLED THE HENDERSON/JACKSON ANIME ALLIANCE!

IT WILL BE HOSTING ITS OPEN HOUSE ON NOVEMBER SECOND, FROM SEVEN TO NINE PM.

I want to see anyone who can make it. Please?

Also—Go read my new new one. I need suggestions and stuff. Once I introduce Sue.

-R.F.

* * *

_Hiei's Gift_

The walk she goes on is slow, and quiet, and it smells like water and snow and cold air.

She finds a place over a bridge, and she sits on the edge and she lets her feet dangle off the side, and she scoops a bit of snow into her red fingers, and she looks at it in contrast to her bloodstained hands.

"You shouldn't be out barefoot," someone tells her from behind.

"I'm okay," she answers bleakly, leaning against the railing and staring out over the water, not bothering to face the source of the voice.

"Will you look up?" he demands. Me'ran leans her head back and looks up to see Asano, who is clad in a rather ugly green and white jumpsuit and sneakers. He's backed by three faces she knows, but no one she remembers off hand, except Kani. (This is probably related to the fact that one is wearing sunglasses and the other is wearing a beanie.)

"Why are you here?" Me'ran asks cheerfully, happy to see them. One offers a hand to help her up, and she takes it.

"Well, Hiei-sama-" one begins before he receives an elbow from Kani.

"Well, that blew the surprise, there was no point in hitting him," Me'ran says defensively, hitting the one that hit Kani. "Be nice." Now it's time to figure out who's who. They're all at least a tad taller than her, so she has to look up at them, and she notices that they're all clad in normal clothes. Kani's wearing a hoodie with the hood up to hide his horns, a mask that can pass off as a lack of desire to spread a sickness, and he's got his black hair in his face, to keep his blue skin from being uber noticeable.

"So, what, am I hanging out with you guys for the day?" she asks. She changes her mind about figuring out who's who right now. She'll find out later, or never.

"We would appreciate it," one of the two she doesn't recognize says. Me'ran studies him a second. He's got a dark complexion, completely black, and bright brown eyes and he's wearing a dark blue long sleeved sweatshirt and khakis. He's the one wearing the beanie.

"I've forgotten you," she says. "I'm sorry--I have a really bad memory, and there are a bunch of people I've healed and stuff."

"It's alright, milady, I wasn't one of your patients. I was-"

The calling her "milady" rings a bell, and she suddenly remembers. "Ohhh! You're the one that Hiei tried to kill--one of the nurse-people I worked with under Sazuna-dono!"

"Yes," he confirms, smiling brightly. "I'm glad you remember me."

"It was hard to tell with you wearing a shirt and all," Me'ran answers, shaking his hand happily. He pats her back with his two-fingered hand under his mitten, and the claw catches her back, sending a bit a shiver down her spine when the cold touches the skin. "And you are...?" Me'ran asks, pointing at the tallest one, who has his head tucked down. He's wearing a white button-up shirt and a jacket over it and jeans and gigantic shoes. He looks back at Me'ran and he lifts the sunglasses he's got on, and he grins a little. She knows this face well enough.

"Good to see you again, Me'ran-san," Natsu says with a low bow. "You look much better than when you were in my care, so to speak."

"Natsu," she grins, hugging his neck. "It's been a couple of months--did you grow?"

He laughs quietly. "Hush, now, I'm already twice as tall as everyone else here, it makes blending in all kinds of hell."

"Try having a tail and a head-fin," argues the nurse, whose name she's trying to remember. Hiro, she thinks.

"What's your name?" Me'ran asks him.

"Hiroshi, ma'am."

"I called you Hiro," Me'ran states.

"You did."

Natsu smiles. "Come on, Little Human, come with us. We can't stay here--we're too out in the open, we stick out."

"You stick out anyway, Natsu," she says, looking up at him. "Even I'm tall for the average woman around here, and six feet--uh, two hundred centimeters is huge for a guy, you're nearly three hundred centimeters, aren't you? Two fifty, maybe?"

"True," he sighs exasperatedly.

"Where are we going?" Me'ran asks the other four.

"Hiei said you wanted to stay here, today," hums one. "But we can go to the Makai if you want. But it's pretty here, and Asano prefers the Ningenkai."

"Why?"

Asano shrugs in response, but then Me'ran looks at the others and shrugs again. "I think I'll stay in the Ningenkai, today. But there's a four-day break coming up from school, I'll be spending that in Demon World," she tells them reassuringly. Natsu, Hiro, and Kani all smile, and she grins back. "Come on, guys, what's the agenda?" she giggles.

"Asano's lived here all his life. He's got some places he can show us. I think Hiei had an intended destination, but he was allowing us to be around with you for a time before he showed you," Kani informs, leading them off the bridge. The four follow him.

Me'ran smiles again and looks to Asano. He bounces cheerfully. "Alright, Lady Healer--would you like shoes?"

"No, I'm fine."

Someone behind her pauses and pulls something out of his pockets and pushes the shoes into her chest. She looks at Hiroshi and sort of glares. He glares back.

"What the hell?" Me'ran demands.

"You're a human--put them on before you lose your toes."

"I don't like shoes," she answers with a smile.

"Do it, or I'll have Natsu hold you still while I put them on you myself."

Natsu jams his hands into his pockets and turns his head, trying to keep the attention off himself, and he starts humming loudly.

"Fine, with the damn shoes, whatever," Me'ran sighs, pulling them on.

Me'ran and the boys start walking. Asano has her follow the river for a while. She and the boys seem fond of the underside of the bridges, which are covered in copious amounts of graffiti, which she greatly appreciates. She and Natsu get into a race (he's as fast as she is, they decide after three rematches), and Hiroshi teaches her a few tricks with healing when Asano falls off of a support beam under the bridge and hurts himself.

"This is fun," Me'ran giggles, grinning brightly. She is beginning to notice the cold, and her face is flushed. So are the other boys'. Kani is the only one who's not blushing, but he is a deeper shade of blue.

"Is that your version of blushing?" she asks him.

"What?"

"You're darker blue."

"Ah, yeah, my reaction to cold, yes."

In his moment of distraction, Me'ran picks up a wad of snow and throws it into his face and starts running until she slides to a halt. Someone hits her right in the head as she turns around. Natsu's on her side--he followed her over. Me'ran and he are now against Kani and Asano and Hiroshi.

The snowball fight is incredible, as one would expect it to be. The snowballs fly at what have to be lethal speeds, and it's real hard to hit someone who can dodge a bullet, but Me'ran does a pretty good job when one can anticipate which way they're going to dodge and start throwing it to anticipate them as well as at them.

"Lady Healer!" Natsu calls. She looks at him, and his huge hand suddenly presses a wad of snow into her face. She steps back, being knocked off balance, and she is suddenly pummeled, and she can't not laugh as the hundreds of snowballs hit her, until she finally gets four built up and hits all of them in the faces, sending them all reeling. She keeps going, throwing at each of them until they all beg for mercy.

And now they're all wet and cold, and they all have snow in their hair (except Hiroshi, who has no hair and was wearing the beanie.) and red spots from where the super-snowballs hit them. All of them are smiling, too.

"This. Is fun," Me'ran says with a suppressed shiver. "Anyone got fire powers of any kind?"

They look between each other, and they all shake their heads.

"Anywhere warm we could go?"

Me'ran shakes her head. "My apartment's too small, and it's pretty cluttered. So."

Me'ran starts back for town, not making any plans, but deciding that she can figure it out as they get there. They all follow her, and Natsu puts his sunglasses snugly on his head.

"Aren't your eyes brown?" Me'ran asks.

"They change with my body temperature," Natsu corrects her idly. "They were brown in Hidosabaku because of how hot it was."

Me'ran giggles. "Mood ring eyes. Cool. What color are they, now?"

"Purple."

"Ah."

Me'ran leads them all to a restaurant, and they sit themselves down.

There's a gathering of waitresses before one finally moves slowly to their table. Me'ran smiles at her in the friendliest way she can manage.

"Hello, how are you?" the Healer asks the scared-looking waitress brightly, trying to appease her fear.

"You're not yakuza, are you?" the woman asks, grinning like it's a joke, but Me'ran can hear that it's a sincere fear.

"No, no, no, we just look it," Me'ran answers, giggling with the "joke" and giving her a low bow.

The waitress has got her eyes on Natsu, though, who still has his sunglasses on and is taller than her, even sitting down. "And... he's..."

"He's a gentle giant. Pituitary. It's an unfortunate thing, but he can't help his height."

The waitress then looks to Takani, who, admittedly, does look kind of criminal with his hood up, gloves, mask, and hair in his eyes.

"He's very sensitive to cold," Me'ran explains, now. "And he's been a little sick, lately. I begged him to come play with us, so he's here, too. I'm sorry, but please, forgive us. We're all cold and hungry, and we'll be out as soon as we can feel our fingers," Me'ran says, showing her the stiff red fingers.

After that, the waitress apparently feels better, and she serves them without a problem, except for refusing to come up from behind either row of seats.

* * *

The hot food picks their body temperature up quickly, allowing Natsu to take off his glasses, though Kani looks mildly uncomfortable. His blue skin is starting to turn an odd green color.

"Is it something you ate, or are you cold blooded?" Me'ran asks him, looking at him. He shakes his head. "Do you need me to sort the stuff out in your system?" Me'ran insists, picking a hand up and reaching toward his head. "I could probably start an enzyme's production or some shit."

"Don't worry about me, Lady," he insists.

"Don't call me that. Me'ran, here, okay?"

"Me'ran," he echoes. "My apologies."

* * *

After they all eat, Asano starts leading them out into the middle of nowhere. The other three boys depart, going back to Demon World after a long farewell, and this leaves Me'ran to follow Asano, up 'til they get to a grove of particularly pretty trees, and he just points her forward.

"Just go through there. And I'm cold, so I'm going back to your apartment," he says, turning on his toes and fleeing.

Me'ran keeps walking. She smells Hiei, but she's not sure if that's just because he likes being here, or if he's been here recently, or if he's here, now. Either way, the scent on the air is a relief.

"It's about time," Hiei barks, landing on the ground on the other side of the clearing. Me'ran runs to him, but she doesn't hug him. He looks like he's been tired for a long time. She imagines she looks the same way. She wasn't aware of how much she missed him, until this moment. His smell is a beautiful thing, his face, his eyes, his hair, the way it moves in the wind, she just... She loves him so much at this moment... Absence makes the heart grow fonder, she guesses. They kiss.

"We went to eat so we could warm up," she explains. "Where've you been?"

"Hn. Why is your hair wet?" he asks, ignoring her question.

"Rolling in the snow. Seriously, where've you been? I missed the fuck out of you, you prat!"

He makes no move to acknowledge the statement, but instead, he moves closer to her, dwarfing himself next to her, and he stretches onto his tip toes to kiss her, and then he takes her hand and he starts to lead her somewhere.

She runs with him for a long time, what feels like forever. She's pulled behind him, but she keeps up well enough. During the run, it starts snowing again, and she's kind of stricken with how romantic everything is. After a while, she reaches an ocean, and he starts roof hopping, so she follows him, up 'til she reaches a tower of some kind, a radio or cellular tower or something, and he perches on the top, and he takes her hand when she gets to the top, and he pulls her into his arms. The heat emanating off him is welcome and comforting, and one hand is wrapped firmly around her arm and the other is around her waist.

"Any particular reason you brought me out here?" Me'ran asks him, taking hold of his hands around her and securing them, so he can't let go even if he wants to.

In response to her question, he twitches his head forward, and she looks to follow his gaze, and she can't stop the smile that spreads out over her pale face.

The snow falling onto the ocean is beautiful. The slight wind stirs strange little twirls of snow through the air, and the sun is behind them, so it's not getting into their eyes at all, and she smiles.

"How was your first Christmas?" Me'ran asks him.

"It's not my first," he objects blandly, being a smart-ass.

"It's the first one you knew what Christmas was."

"Mm. I hate snow."

"Then why're you out here?"

He doesn't say anything in response, but he looks at her and stares a second and neither of them moves for a long time, until she cranes her neck forward and kisses the corner of his mouth. He moves back, then smirks and leans back and stares out at nothing.


	70. News

Sorry for the delay. Distracted. Also, I'm sorry about not updating the other one, but my computer's being a wretch and has eaten my ability to use these files.

-R.F.

* * *

_News_

Mid-march. The cherry blossoms around here are still unopened except for the early bloomers, haha. Me'ran's walking through a park, admiring them and the cold weather, and enjoying the ugly, dead beauty. The only problem she has with being here is not being able to wear the Makai robes she keeps getting as gifts or payment. She's settled for a normal-ish outfit with the hakama and keigoki, like her original outfit, but this one's navy blue and white. She's in human world because Kurama asked her to come out for the lovely weather. Also because he wanted to see her again, and he hadn't outside of school for a long time, so that's acceptable. Hiei's here, too, naturally, but mainly because he doesn't trust her and Kurama alone, with her being as nice as she is and Kurama being as secretly ambitious as he is. (She's under the impression that Kurama has Hiei worried about her, because every time she puts herself into a dangerous position, he gets uneasy and comments about how Kurama's going to kill the both of them.)

"I love early spring," Me'ran sighs wistfully. "March is my favorite month."

Kurama looks down at her and smiles, and then he goes back to petting the blooms with his fingertips. Hiei makes a slightly derisive noise.

"You have petals in your hair," Hiei informs Me'ran coldly.

"Only 'cos you keep shaking the branches and making it rain on me," Me'ran answers as he does it again, hopping to a different branch and shaking the one he was on, sending the soft hail of petals onto her and back into her hair. She shakes her head to dislodge them, but they seem to be pretty well stuck.

"I think it's becoming," Kurama objects.

"You also think that boy's uniform and those scars are becoming," Hiei spits.

"And you don't, Hiei?" Me'ran counters with a smile. She'd continue with the comeback and mention that the boy's uniform is easier to take off, and not only that, but he counted and kissed each scar last time, not including the ones below her right elbow because there were too many below that point--but Kurama wouldn't be happy.

Hiei grunts quietly and turns his head. "Thought I they were attractive, I wouldn't call him into question."

Me'ran opens her mouth to argue, but then she closes it again and starts walking to a different tree, one with almost all closed blooms.

"You're a lying bastard," she whispers to Hiei, who tried to follow her.

"Hn," he answers.

"Oh, shut the hell up, you love my scars. All two hundred thirty seven of them."

"That's not the real number. You have too many to count. A lot of those bullet holes melded into one, and there have to be at least twenty more on your lower right arm that I didn't count."

"Why not?"

"Too many."

Me'ran ignores him and starts petting at the flowers. A flower comes off into her palm, and she sits down on the back of a park bench and stares at the pink/white petals on her palm. Her hands are just a little redder than the flower, having been stained by blood.

"Your eyes just turned very green, considering the fact that they are still blue," Kurama points out. "What's that mean?"

"Thoughtful."

"What about?"

"Well, it's weird," she answers, looking up at him and seeing the curious look on his face. He's got that look he used to have when he was being infatuated with her, too.

"What is?"

She holds out the flower. "My hands are stained with blood, even though I've only made it spill four times in my whole life. Even Hiei calls me a barbarian. When I think of home, I think of a place where little green monsters attack and kill mall-sized monsters, and humans are the bottom of the food chain. It's the first time in a long time that I'm touching a flower rather than someone's liver."

Kurama extends his hand and puts it next to hers. It's paler, and only just as calloused, and longer and thinner, and smaller. Girlier in general. She almost laughs, but she leaves it at a smart-ass grin.

"You take care of your hands, huh?" she teases.

"I do. I have killed hundreds. Thousands. Possibly over a million, did you know that?" He puts his hand in his pocket, and he holds his other arm, and he gives her a nervous smile. "Even if I killed one person a day every day all my life, I doubt I would have half as many as I have truly murdered. The stains on our hands are not indicative of how much we've done. It seems to be the opposite," Kurama states.

"Do women make you nervous, Kurama?" Me'ran asks curiously, driving the conversation somewhere else, to somewhere less unpleasant. She's noticed how he does that nervous thing, but only to her, and he did it to Naoko when they were on the way to Ariseki.

"What?" he asks, startled at the sudden observation on her behalf.

"You always get that look on your face, even if it has nothing to do with being in love with me," she points out. "And you keep your head down when you're talking to women, but you're near on authoritative when talking to another male."

"How do you notice these things when you can have a hole punched in your arm without realizing it? You can totally miss everything around you except minor subtleties that are often lost on you anyway," he chuckles.

"Practice," she replies smoothly. "Do women make you nervous, though?"

"I've never had a problem with thinking men could read me. Women, on the other hand, have no problem doing so. Suspecting that my every move is expected and known is unnerving," Kurama confesses, holding his hands out palm up.

"Ah."

Hiei swoops down and lands on the ground in front of her. She looks down at him, but he isn't looking at her. He's staring hard off to his left, and there is a troubled tightness in his lip.

"Hiei?" Me'ran asks concernedly.

"We need to talk to you," Kurama says simply before she asks. Something in his voice sounds foreboding.

"Why?" she asks suspiciously, moving away from them and narrowing her eyes.

"Put delicately, there have been recent changes that you should know about," he says slowly, folding his hands behind his back. Hiei moves around a little bit and he looks more nervous, almost squirming.

"Recent changes," Me'ran echoes. She thinks for a few seconds about what it could possibly be. Hiei hasn't been around as often as he used to, and Kurama's been busy, too, but that doesn't mean much, that's fairly normal. She was wondering if they'd fought for her again, but that change would have been louder.

"There's been a new turn of events, recently--Yuusuke has been invited back to Demon World. And so have we," Kurama continues. "Each of us by different rulers. You spend much of your time there, you know of them, yes?"

"Mukuro, Raizen, and Youmi. Yeah. Sazuna was a vassal of Raizen's; she was trying to take land from Youmi. Broke one of the rules 'cos she took me to the Makai, and that's why she dismissed me so quickly when she had to flee. Got her ass handed to her because of the science branch of Youmi's army."

"Very good," Kurama says softly. "Yuusuke was called by Raizen--he's Yuusuke's ancestor. And I have been called by Youmi, and Hiei by Mukuro."

"Why were you two called?"

"I don't know," Hiei mutters at the same time Kurama says "Old business partners."

Me'ran pauses to think, but then brings her eyes to their faces, and it occurs to her why Hiei's nervous, and Kurama's uneasy.

"You don't plan on taking me with you, do you?" she hears her mouth ask. She didn't mean to ask, but she panicked as soon as it came to mind.

Hiei freezes in his pacing, and Kurama's eyes shift farther down, and his mouth tightens.

"We were at ends over whether or not we should even tell you," Kurama informs her, taking her arm gently in his hand and guiding her to a bench, and sitting down next to her. Hiei jumps to the tree over their heads. He wants to leave, she already knows, and she'd give him permission to, but she doesn't know when they're leaving, and she doesn't want this to be the last time she ever sees him.

"Me'ran?" Kurama asks. He was still talking.

"What?" she whimpers. She hates that her voice has gotten so weak, but she can't do anything about it.

"We're sorry," he says. He's surprised, she thinks. His face looks it, sort of.

"If you were sorry, you'd find somewhere to keep me," she spits. The sadness is turning into anger.

"We don't have a choice. Youmi wants to unite Demon World, and I can only imagine what he wants to do with it after that. He is pro-human-consumption, one that is a glutton for it, and he hates humanity. Raizen has been starving himself for three thousand years, and he'll be dead soon--to bring a human to him is as good as suicide on your behalf. Mukuro called for Hiei. He is the youngest, most recent of them, at five hundred years, but he is most brutal--he became a ruler in five hundred years, which is an incredible feat in itself, but he's equal to the other two in power. I don't know his story, but if he doesn't want you there, he will attempt to kill you to get rid of you. He is a very dangerous tyrant."

"Maybe you don't understand that I'm okay with that?" Me'ran asks quietly. "Facing danger isn't a fear of mine."

"Me'ran, you can't come. No one can take you and you're still only a human, there's too much danger for you to go alone!" Kurama cries frustratedly.

"Well, what am I supposed to do?!" Me'ran counters angrily. Her voice is beyond her control, and she hears herself shouting. So she breathes a little, then echoes in calmer tones--"What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. What have you been doing?" he asks softly. "You've not been home, most of the time..."

"I've been going back and forth to Demon World, adventuring and so forth with Hiei."

"Why can't you keep doing that?" His voice has gotten charmingly comforting, but it's not working.

"It wouldn't be worth it. Hiei gone? You gone? Yuusuke gone? I'd be at an apartment halfway across the world from where I was born, and a dimension away from where I belong without anyone I care about and without anyone who cares about me except Kuwabara, and even then, he doesn't talk to me much 'cos I scare him..."

Hiei crosses his arms and drops next to her. "I'll take you."

Kurama freezes and chokes on his tongue. "Hiei--"

"She's right. She doesn't belong here. If Mukuro doesn't want her, then we can send her somewhere else. She's got connections with every class and kind of demon. If all else fails, I'll leave Mukuro. I don't intend to come back anyway. She's got enough Demon World knowledge to find somewhere to hide, she's got enough goods and power that she can trade and barter for her life, and anyone that wants to eat her will have to face nearly infinite knowledge of their anatomy."

Me'ran looks at Hiei, and breathes again, and the cries of distress that had folded themselves into her chest dissipate, and she pulls him to her by the cowl to kiss his cheek. He looks annoyed and pulls away to wipe his face off with his sleeve, and he vanishes.

"Don't die," Kurama warns. "Hiei is planning to depart soon. You can follow him--they'll be going to Genkai's. Prepare completely--take your herbs and medical kits. And go through before Hiei, not after. Wait until he's ready to, though, okay?" He kisses your face. "I can take care of your apartment; I'll give what you don't take to Genkai. And I know that you're familiar with Demon World, but please, be careful. Watch your back; you don't know who will betray you. I'll seek you out eventually; I want you alive for that. Don't die."

"I keep trying, but I'm just not good at it," Me'ran tells him with a false smile. "Don't worry. I'll take care of me."


	71. Amongst the Demons

Thank you, commenters. You really light up my day, did you know that?

-R.F.

_Amongst the Demons_

After Me'ran gets back to Demon World, she realizes how much she missed it, even after only a week of not coming back. It's just like surviving certain death--everything seems fresh, new, and wonderful. Hiei's here, too, but this is a different part of the Makai than she's used to, and she dares not move without him--he's still getting his bearings.

"I know where I'm going," Hiei says. He puts emphasis on "I". She stands up and brushes herself off.

"Alright, so let's get going."

"Just know--I won't be protecting you. I've got my business to attend to."

"Agreed," Me'ran responds.

"If you're a burden, or if you hold me back, I'll leave you."

"I know," she says. She's not sure if he's lying or not, so she doesn't say anything else. He's probably trying to scare her off. It's not going to bother her. Well, it is bothering her, she's not used to such cold behavior, but she's not going to let it stop her. "Just know-" she finally says. "Even if you're not protecting me, I'm protecting you. Arrogant fucker."

He smiles, and he has to hide his mouth in his cowl to keep her from seeing it.

She starts to wonder what Mukuro's like. She knows he's a ruler of a third of the Makai, and he's called Hiei here, but other than that, he's got no idea who he is. She's already decided that she's going to play Hiei's servant until she gets enough of a reputation to do otherwise.

Mukuro's palace is huge. At the base of it, there are several giant bugs, one of which takes off right over their heads.

"Whoa."

"Don't be so human," Hiei spits. "You'll get yourself killed."

She follows him to a large door. One of the two guards waiting by the door flees, and the other waits to let her inside.

There's an entrance hall, and then they're led into a room off it, and she and Hiei go in. Mukuro's standing there with a second figure, a much taller one with a threatening helmet and powerful armor. She studies Mukuro, though--something seems odd about him. His arms are bound and his head is wrapped. She studies him, and she looks for a second until she finally realizes that that is far too much chest for a man, and the way he's holding himself is peculiarly feminine. He's a her.

Then she senses anger around the room, now that she's not distracted, and she moves a little closer to Hiei, almost hiding behind him.

"Hiei of three eyes," Mukuro says in greeting. "And what is this?" she adds when she looks at her. Me'ran thinks she's looking at her.

Me'ran bows low.

"Erufib Meruran," she answers softly. "Sir," she adds. "A healer and a thorn in Master Hiei's side."

"Get up," Hiei spits. "Don't be stupid."

"I'm sorry, Hiei-sama," Me'ran says quickly, moving back and bowing to him, and to Mukuro again before she ducks behind Hiei and ducks her head.

It's quiet for a second more, until, finally, Mukuro says, "Kirin, escort Hiei to his trial."

Me'ran starts to follow Hiei, but all three demons in the room give her a death glare, and Mukuro's murderous aura freezes her in her tracks.

"Stay here," Hiei commands.

"Yes, sir," Me'ran says quietly.

They leave her in the room alone for a while, and she stands around waiting until, finally, she gets bored and sits in the floor and starts braiding her hair.

"Erufib," Mukuro's voice says from the doorway she left through.

Me'ran jumps up and bows again and stays in the bow. "Lord Mukuro!" she greets quickly, not rising from the bow. After a second of silence, Me'ran picks her head up and looks at the demon woman across the room. She's alone. Hiei and Kirin are gone. Me'ran's slightly more frightened than she was when she first detected Mukuro's murderous desires.

"Drop the act," she barks coldly, no longer using the mechanical voice-box thing and sounding much like a normal woman, if Me'ran could get over that she still sounds like she wants to eat the human's face. "You know as well as I do that I am no man, and I know as well as you do that you are no servant. I've heard of you. Your reputation precedes you. You're the one, the human that they all talk about, who treats demons as if they were her own kind. You're famous all over the Makai. I believe that three or four of your former patients live here. I know who you are. But I don't know why you're here."

Me'ran stands upright slowly and tries to keep herself from looking too defiant--something in her face is naturally bold like that when she's scared--by folding her hands behind her back and fixing her feet together. "I was following Hiei," she answers simply. Mukuro's got something planned, Me'ran discovers, looking at her carefully. Half the wrappings around her head have been undone--Me'ran can see her chin and her mouth. The mouth is smirking, just a little.

"Why?" she asks mockingly.

"I couldn't follow any of my other friends," Me'ran replies tersely. Why would she care? And. Let's not tell her about Hiei and me... "Kurama and Yuusuke were each going to the other rulers--one supports flesh-eating, the other is a risk to go to because he's refused for three thousand years."

"You're leaving out a reason," Mukuro points out. Her mouth moves again, smirking a little wider, but looking slightly pissed, too. Oh, shit. "I know the real reason. Does he?" Me'ran stops focusing on the woman's mouth, and her whole body shivers. Mukuro's letting out leaks of her youki, concentrating them into red-pink glows around her, snaking around. Fear edges into the human girl, and goose bumps rise on her arms. She's remembering all too well--Hiei looked like this before he used the Kokuryuuha.

"Does he what?" Me'ran asks, choking on her own throat.

"Does he know you love him?"

Me'ran's suddenly afraid. She knew this... How? Me'ran wasn't that obvious, and she never has been anywhere but the bedroom, and even then that's not even really showing love. But. If she tells Mukuro yeah, and he loves her back, it would be risking him. Mukuro's ready to hurt her, what if she hurts him...? "No," she lies.

Something about her looks more settled. Me'ran's suspicious have been confirmed, officially. Those tones she used when she said his name and she's relieved by the idea of Hiei not returning the feelings... She speaks again, further proving the idea. "Good. Leave. I don't care where you go, but you cannot stay here." Yeah, she's trying to get me out of the way. Bitch.

Every cell in Me'ran's body rejects the idea of abandoning him. All fear leaves her, and she doesn't think before she gives a firm, "Fuck you."

No sooner than it comes from her mouth, she knows it was a mistake. She knew it was a mistake before she said it, but it was a reflex. Her heart jumps into her throat, and she's now terrified. She finds herself wishing there was a very thick wall between the two of them. The stance Mukuro has taken is hostile, and she doesn't have anywhere to run.

Mukuro doesn't even move, so the only cue Me'ran gets to block or put up a shield or run is when she feels an impact across the whole front of her, and she feels another impact on her back, and then things go black.

* * *

When Me'ran opens her eyes, the first thing she takes in is that one of her eyes can't see. She tries to get up, but nothing happens. She tries again, and this time it hurts like hell. She cries out, then tries to take in a breath. It hurts her chest. She tries to move her arm, and it hurts enough to force a cry from her lungs, and she breathes in again, and THAT hurts, so she tries to take a damage report on herself. She can still feel everything, which is a misfortune--it hurts like hell. And she suddenly realizes that she can see the sky, but the fronts of both hips are lying on the ground. Broken back, then. Her foot's still turned up, though. So twisted leg, too. 

There's blood in her mouth, and she tries to roll over and it doesn't work. She spits as well as she can, and she realizes there's blood on her lips and chin, too.

"You survived," Mukuro's voice says. "I'm impressed."

Me'ran tries to look up at the one-eyed bitch, but the eye Me'ran can move can't see that far. She picks up one arm, finally getting enough of a hold on herself to do so. It's not broken, she's relieved to discover, but she can't move her fingers. She tries to touch at the eye she's not seeing out of, and she hits the empty spot where it was, and she touches at the strange feeling on her cheek bone, and something sticky attaches itself to her fingers. She looks at it, looking at her limp fingers emptily, not realizing that the translucent gel and blood is the remains of her eye for at least a whole few seconds. Then she takes in a breath again, and it hurts. Her fear rules her body, though, and her lungs begin to choke out, trying to force her voice to work. "H—" she whispers. "Hi. Hiei," she says more firmly. Her voice has found itself. Now she takes another breath and gives a full-blown shriek. "Hiei! HIEI!"

She scares herself with the blood-curdling scream. The pounding of her heart lets her know she's alive, now, and she coughs, but that hurts so badly that she doesn't want to anymore.

"He can't hear you. I'll have to hit you to kill you. You should be honored. You're the first human I've killed myself in centuries, and the first creature below A class that I've ever had to hit to kill."

"Hiei!" Me'ran whimpers again. She puts her hand on the ground and claws at it, trying to drag herself away, but her body's broken beyond even being dragged. The only thing on her mind is escape and the man that can help her do so.

There's another impact, and Me'ran blacks out again. This time, she comes to before she stops moving, but she can't stop herself from tumbling a good thirty feet, hitting the ground and twisting and flopping. When she stops, she's half-curled on her side. She's less twisted this time. Mukuro goes to her and picks her up. Mukuro's fingers are extended through the bandages, which seems to be enough.

"Hiei," Me'ran whispers desperately. Her mind is blank, except for the memory of her lover and his cutting off one man's hand for her, and the image of this jealous woman that has beaten her beyond recognition. Her thoughts are sluggish and jumbled and consist mostly of, "please let him hear me".

Mukuro screams something, but the only thing Me'ran notices is the cool air against her skin.

"Your breath is cold," the human girl states numbly. She's fallen out of herself, now--watching herself like a movie. The pain is less real, here.

Mukuro throws her again, and she hits something and hits the ground, once again half-curled on her side, sort of. Her hips are lying flat, but her left shoulder is the only one on the ground.

* * *

Kirin's leading Hiei down a hallway. There's a slight rumble, and Hiei feels Mukuro's power, and he feels the unfamiliar sensation of fear wrap around his stomach and grip it tight. He looks to Kirin to see if this is a cause for concern, but he shows no reaction, so he ignores it and keeps walking. Then he hears it. Her voice. He can almost pick out his name in the shriek, but that's not what's important. She's screaming. He's never heard her scream like that, ever. He's heard her whimper, cry out, hiss, whine, and complain, but never scream, even when her back was being broken. Kirin tries to catch his shirt as Hiei turns and bolts back outside. 

The entrance hall has a gigantic hole in the side of it, and Hiei moves to it and looks down. The two of them are standing out against the ground, and easily spotted. Mukuro is standing five or so feet from Me'ran, who is sprawled on the ground, part of her face down and part of her on her side.

Hiei can't decide if he's more horrified or disgusted. Not only is Me'ran broken, bleeding, and twisted, but she's still alive.

"You can't kill me," she's whimpering to Mukuro. "If you could, I'd be dead by now. I'd have died ages ago."

Her voice is weak and rattling with the blood in her mouth and throat. But she's not pleading. Hiei notices that with pride. His chosen mate may be human, weak, insufferably good and unwilling to bring harm to anyone else, but she is certainly not pathetic or cowardly.

Mukuro's youki flares with rage. He's probably frustrated with his lack of ability to kill her, as even Hiei himself has been.

"Who are you to say I can't kill a human!?" roars Mukuro angrily.

Hiei drops to the ground between Me'ran and Mukuro and looks Mukuro in the proverbial face.

"She's right. You can't kill her. She's one of the Undying."

And with that, all hostility in Mukuro's stance goes away, and he straightens. Hiei's sure that if he could see his face, he'd be blushing or ashamed.

Hiei turns to Me'ran and moves toward her more quickly than he means to, and kneels next to her. He takes a damage report subconsciously. Both legs are broken, one's foot is facing the wrong way, her arms are broken, and all three bones in one of her arms are jutting out of the skin in her elbow. Her arm looks considerably shorter with the bones jutting out and the muscle and flesh bundled up and massed all together that way--absolutely disgusting. He can tell how her neck is broken by how her head is twisted around, and one of her eyes has burst and is hanging out onto her cheek bone, stuck to it. The pupil is milked over, but the iris is still pure blue, almost black with fear. Blood is covering her lower jaw and mouth and her lips. He already knows his face is showing his horror, though he doesn't mean for it to.

"Ah, you heard me," she whispers, staring at him with the remaining eye. Her voice is shaky. She's trembling.. "Good, I was scared I was going to be left out here." She's smiling. How the hell can she smile!? What the hell is wrong with this woman that she can smile now, while she is literally in pieces!?

"What did you do?" Hiei demands, for lack of anything better to do. What could...

"Believe it or not--I did nothing. Well, he told me to leave and I said no, so I guess that counts. I'm just fragile. God, it hurts to breathe, which of my ribs are broken?"

"Hiei, get away from her," Mukuro demands angrily. Hiei looks at him and glares.

"No," he spits. Hiei's insolence has returned tenfold. He had every intention of being Mukuro's bitch for long enough to earn his trust, but why the hell should he listen to someone willing to hurt Me'ran? Especially for nothing?

"Getaway from her!" Mukuro repeats. Hiei marvels at how feminine he sounds, and his face crinkles when he looks at the taller one-eyed one. The hell?

"Mukuro, if you hurt him, I'll kill him," Me'ran shouts. She's straining to get the air out of her lungs, and Hiei can hear how much it hurts her to even try shouting. All thoughts of Mukuro are gone, and he stares down at her, blinking stupidly. What? Why would that be a threat?

But it works. The flared youki of the demon behind Hiei fades to nothing.

"You can't even move," Mukuro spits, but even so, he remains still. Hiei neither hears nor feels any motion from him.

"Hiei, move so he can see me," Me'ran requests. He, not knowing what else to do, steps over her on his knee and kneels behind her. Sort of behind her, anyway, a few of her body parts are still facing him.

And then she catches him off guard when she reaches up slowly with her left arm, the less broken of the two, and she puts her thumb to his temple. Hiei's so surprised that he can't react for a second, and then when he can react mentally, his body doesn't cooperate. She's paralyzed him! That wretch!

"I can, and I will, Mukuro. If you hurt him, I'll kill him," she spits. Hiei stares down at her.

"The hell are you doing?" he barks. He can still use his mouth and eyes, the smaller muscles, but his legs are bound by whatever she's doing, as are his arms.

Mukuro completely drops his guard, standing with his feet together and resting his weight on his heels. Hiei sees him evaluating the situation.

"Fine." Then to Hiei, he says, "Enjoy your last moments together. I'm sure I've got one of her kind under my employment, I'm sending him out here to kill her."

And with that, he's gone. Whatever she was doing that kept him from moving so effectively fades as she lets her arm drop. There's a sick crunching noise when the bones shift, but she doesn't acknowledge it.

"Me'ran," he says, suddenly remembering that she should have died about five minutes ago when her neck snapped like that, or whatever all that is bleeding leaked out that much, or when her brow crashed in, or whatever made her eye burst made her eye burst... He sort of wishes she had died, this is horrific. He can't begin to imagine the pain she's in.

"Relax. The blood on my face is where I bit my tongue. What happened to my eye?" And she's still completely conscious. Her mind hasn't been... And not for the first time, Hiei admires her sheer strength. If he had ever been that badly broken, he would have at least shown a little fear or pain or something. She just wants to know what happened. There's no way she doesn't feel this.

Enough. What happened to her eye? "I think it burst."

"Ew," she says with a smile. He catches it and sort of smiles, too, but it's not nearly as strong as the disgust on his face. He wants to help her feel at least a little better, and so he leans down and kisses her. When he sits back, blood is left lingering on his mouth. She starts to move one of her arms, probably to remove the blood, but she closes her remaining eye and her jaw tightens, and then her eye opens again. It hurt her. Hiei wipes it off with the back of his hand.

"I love you," she whispers.

"Lady Healer!" someone says from behind Hiei. He turns to look. It's Takani.

"Hiei, who is that?" Me'ran asks kindly.

"Takani."

"I believe you know me better as just Kani, My Lady." He moves closer. Hiei moves back and lets him see her, and so that they can talk. He'll be more help than Hiei will. As Takani takes in the details of her current condition, he gives a soft moan of either empathy pain or nausea, or, as Hiei's willing to bet, both of them. Hiei looks up at him, but he's hidden his face and he's already moving into her view.

"Ah, Kani! Sorry I didn't recognize you, Mukuro killed my good eye. Did he send you out here? You really one of my kind? I was under the impression that my kind couldn't make any more of my kind," she hums lightly, smiling at the blue man so comfortingly that one would think he was the one hurt. He takes her hand, the one that was still in its proper place (the other one had been forced somewhere closer to her shoulder as the bones in that arm were forced out of her elbow) and pets it.

"I'm not Undying, Lady, I just told him that so he would send me out here. I saw him attack you," he answers. He looks horrified.

"Ah. Well," she says. Her head sort of moves, and she cries out, but only once, and quietly.

"We'll have to help you," Kani says decisively, looking to Hiei.

"Yeah. Uh. Where can I go?"

"Lady Sazuna hasn't forgotten you. She is living with Lord Raizen, now."

"How do I get there?"

"What are you asking?" Kani demands, looking her in her damaged face. "You can't be suggesting that you can take yourself anywhere in that condition! Even if you could, I won't allow it!"

"My back's broken, I can't be carried without a stretcher," she chides. "I wish I could get up, but I can't. Don't worry about it, I know what I mean."

"You can't be serious," Hiei barks. She looks at him and her arm starts to move, but it just drags across the ground, and she scowls at it as if it had betrayed her.

"Shut up, I can take care of myself. What happened to you refusing to take care of me, anyway, Hiei?" she mocks with a slight smile. "Pick me up, Kani."

"No, ma'am."

"Do it. I'll show you. You can't hurt me any more than I've already been hurt. Just ignore any cries of pain, they'll be short-lived."

Hiei watches as Takani works his arms under her broken legs and around her shoulders, twisting so that his elbow is under her head. She is careful to keep her cries of pain at a minimum, but that doesn't mean that a few don't escape. Then Hiei sees a strange red pane of reiki starting to grow beneath her. He's seen this only twice before, once when she was using it to stand on and get to a much-taller-demon's wound, and once when she was using it as a table. It was the same power she used to make shields. He thinks he understands what she's doing, and Kani seems to have figured it out. After it stops growing, Takani lowers her onto it. Hiei guesses Takani'd seen it before.

She picks herself up so that she's level with Hiei's face, and her head falls to face him.

"Your neck is broken, too," Takani tells her, "so be careful with that." Hiei barely hears it. He's busy staring into Me'ran's broken face. He feels a tear building in his eye. He's almost startled at it—he'd felt that before, the strange burning in his eyes, usually when he was thinking too hard about his sister, and his face never twisted like most creatures' when they wept (almost like her expressionless face when she wept). He doesn't let it fall, yet. He won't let her see that, she'll try to be stupid and stay for him.

"It's alright," she says to Takani, first, and then her tones get quieter and she looks right at Hiei with her remaining right eye. "Come here," she tells him. He leans closer to her, and she waits for him to get to where he's almost touching her before she moves a little and kisses him. "I love you, Hiei," she says. Her bleeding lips fight with the words and her voice cracks. She's on the verge of tears, and he can see them in her eyes, even though her face remains blank of anything other than mild pain and that goddamned smile. The water making her eyes glisten stays, though—she's holding them back for his sake. Dammit, that dumb human always knew how to give him a good kick in the feelings.

Hiei decides that he's going to say it back, but the word tangles his tongue up, and he fights with his lips to get them to cooperate. This should not be so hard to say to someone who's said it to him so many times, who's almost died for him several times over, who's taken care of him and shown him kindness even at his worst moments! But it is--the word refuses to come out. He forces it to anyway. "Ai--aish--I love you, too," Hiei whispers. Then he kisses her. It's much easier to just kiss her, but this one seems so different from any other kiss they've shared. Even if the kiss had lasted forever, it wouldn't have been long enough. He's frightened that this may be the last time he ever sees her, and it feels so sickeningly wrong that this might be how things end for them.

Hiei stands the rest of the way up, and looks to see that Kani has turned his back.

"Raizen's lands are that way," he says, pointing. "I don't know how fast that thing flies, but it will take you at least four days, no matter how fast," he tells her, kissing her a final time. Hiei can't fight the tear in his eye anymore, and he turns a little and ducks his head and rubs his eye so that the tear rolls into his hand and hardens into a black stone. He faces her again, and he puts it into her broken hand. She can't see it, but she closes her fist around it. The pain in her face is only half-there. She feels better, at least.

"Don't die before I get to see you again," she says to him, smiling. A tear has fallen out of her remaining eye and is trailing down the side of her head, mixing with dried blood spatter and into her hair.

"Hn," Hiei answers, smirking. "Same to you. Don't get killed."

Hiei watches her fly straight up, and he sees her leave his sight. He waits a little while, then he looks at Takani, who has ducked his head. "You'll have to knock me out, Master Hiei, or he'll kill us both. Tell him you did it at the beginning."

Hiei punches Takani hard in the back of the head, and he drops like a boneless sack of flesh. The metaphor reminds him of what was once Me'ran's arm, and he feels sick to his stomach again. God, that image is never going to leave his mind, is it? He picks Takani up over his shoulders, and as he walks into the palace again, he hears Me'ran scream, "FUCK YOU, YOU UGLY BITCH!" and he can't help but smile.

Insolent bitch. Perfect for me. Hiei's very proud of her and himself, her for being who she is, and him for having the good sense to keep her.


	72. Healing

Thank you, commenters. You really light up my day, did you know that?

-R.F.

* * *

Indestructible: Healing

Me'ran doesn't collapse until a little after half through the morning of the fourth day. She's been falling towards the ground slowly but surely, and now she's so low that the grass is touching her little stretcher, and she realizes she's slowing down, until, finally, the thing just dissipates entirely. Me'ran hits ground and bounces and drags, but she hardly notices for the numbness that accompanies massive physical trauma and blood loss. She just checks and makes sure the thing Hiei gave her is still in her hand. She wants to sleep, but she can't--she's too hurt. But she closes her eyes and allows herself begin to dream.

Time passes slowly. It's dusk when someone finally finds her. She's awakened when they touch her arm, but she can't do anything about it.

"A human," someone says hungrily.

"If we carry her--"

"What're you guys hunched over?" Yuusuke's voice calls. Me'ran nearly chokes on her own throat. Saved!

"A human, sire," one of the voices says. The other one cusses under his breath.

There's a bit of quiet as Yuusuke's footsteps get closer and closer, and then the steps start moving faster, then stop, suddenly, and a few backwards steps are taken. "Holy shit, it's Me'ran," breathes Yuuuske.

"Don't look," Me'ran cries quickly. "Don't, don't."

He steps into view of her remaining eye and she sees how his face is contorted. "Oh, god..."

"I can't die. It's a curse," she says softly. She smiles, though. "I'm sorry I didn't call first."

Yuusuke leans down next to her and he winces before he looks her in the remaining eye and smiles goofily. "You look different. Did you get a haircut?"

She smiles back. "As a matter of fact, Yuusuke, I haven't had a haircut since I was kidnapped by you guys. I should probably do that." He chuckles, but he doesn't say anything. She drops the jokes. "I have a pouch on my upper arm. Well, it used to be my upper arm; I think it's now mush. It's under the sleeve. Don't worry about hurting me; I'm already damaged beyond what most people would call pain. I need you to get that for me."

He picks up her sleeve and winces. "Are you sure?" he asks. "I mean, there's no way that won't hurt."

"Undo the belts," she tells him. "Take it off me before you move it, but don't worry about hurting me. It'll be okay."

Yuusuke winces and starts working at the belts. Me'ran feels more of an irritating little pulling sensation and a stinging pain, but then Yuusuke pulls the pouch back and looks in it. "What am I looking for?" he asks.

"There's a leaf. It smells kind of like rain. It's round, and soft."

Yuusuke holds up four leaves before he holds up the right one.

"Good. Now, do me a favor and put that on my tongue, would you?" Me'ran requests, sticking out her tongue. "I was in a hurry to get away from Mukuro; I couldn't get Hiei to do that for me."

"Mukuro did this? Wow," Yuusuke says with a dumb grin as he puts the leaf's tip into her mouth. She works it into her mouth and chews it a little before she finds out just how much it hurts to swallow.

"Yeah. Do you have any healers?" Me'ran gags. The leaf-medicine should kick in a minute or two.

Yuusuke nods. "Yeah, we do. They're not as good as you, though."

"So long I can move again, I'll be fine."

Yuusuke nods, then beckons at a third bald man a little away from her. He's dressed similarly to the ones that found her. His face is longer, less broad, and just as serious as the other two.

"Hokashin, I need you to pick her up. Like, support her whole body. Her back's broken, and so's her neck."

"How the hell can you tell that?" she demands in a high voice. Yuusuke rubs the back of his head.

"Uh. Well, neck is touching the ground, and your head is doing that... thing it's doing. And it's obvious your back's broken--your legs are facing the wrong way."

The Hokashin guy picks her up easily after a second, and he starts carrying her back to the castle. Yuusuke follows.

"So, what happened?" he asks Me'ran on the way.

"Mukuro tested me. Found out the fun way how hard I am to kill."

Yuusuke laughs a little. "That sucks. Why'd he try to kill you?"

"I'm going to be nice to him and not tell you that," Me'ran replies simply, remembering to call her him.

"Alright. Well. My Dear Old Pa oughtta be alright with you--You could probably help us out--our Healers suck."

"You're the Healer that Yuusuke-sama has been talking about?" Hokashin asks.

Me'ran doesn't answer his question, yet. "Why have you been talking about me, Yuusuke?" she whines. "It's bad enough the rest of Demon World's heard of me, I don't need a whole kingdom asking me for help."

"Because last time I hurt myself, those jerks didn't know what they were doing! I just hope they can fix you. What'd he do to you, anyway?"

"Huh?"

"Mukuro. What'd he do?"

"Thought at me. Kicked me."

"That's it?"

"Yeah."

"I believe you. Class S is not to be fucked with. Raizen made me look like a bitch, and he's been dying for a thousand years, and I'm, like, loads stronger than you."

She laughs quietly and tries to pick up her head, but it hurts, and she gives up quickly.

"What happened to your eye?" Yuusuke asks. "Did he stab it out or something?"

"It burst, according to Hiei. I blacked out, but he didn't touch me between the initial blow and me coming to, so I'm guessing the impact knocked it out of my head."

"Hey, where the hell was Hiei!?" he demands, suddenly looking unhappy.

"He saved my ass, but the first bit of my beating, he didn't even know. Relax."

Hokashin looks pleadingly at Yuusuke. "Master, if she doesn't survive..."

"She's gonna. Sorry, man, but she doesn't die."

"Yuusuke-sama, there's no way she's not gonna--" someone near him that she can't see starts to complain, but Yuusuke's sharp, authoritative bark interrupts the whine.

"If you ask me again if you can eat one of my best friends, I'll knock you into next week," Yuusuke warns angrily. The chatter dies, and Me'ran smiles at Yuusuke.

"Just tell them I'm Undying, they'll back off. And even if they wouldn't, it's not like any of these scars won't look complimented with a good bite."

"Nah, I like asserting my authority," he says. "And I figure the less blood you leak, the better." And with that, he reaches carefully forward and pushes her hair out of her face. She smiles and closes her eye.

* * *

Me'ran doesn't sleep, but she cuts off any awareness of the outside world, forcing herself into dream, using the slightly narcotic effects of the leaf Yuusuke gave her to do so. And she stays in the semi-conscious state until after she is laid on a bed, and all her brokens pull and twist oddly as they move her.

"Someone get a good picture. Or let me see a mirror," she requests as she opens her eye.

The three healers around her all jump, and Yuusuke grins for her.

"You're alive," one says, sounding more frightened than surprised.

"Was it the pulse that gave it away?" Me'ran teases. Yuusuke moves the mirror so that it's over her eye, and he rotates it down so she can see her feet. While he moves it up, she lists off what she sees.

"Brok--Aaagh, god, my leg rotated! Holy fuck... Sorry... Okay... Right foot's broken, left ankle's sprained, Left tibia, and probably fibula, are broken and twisted, my right hip, from the looks of it, has been smashed to an extent... My right hand has been half-smashed, my right radius has been broken in two places, I think one of them in half, the ulna snapped in half... Hold on, Yuusuke; let me look at my left arm. Compound fracture in the humorous and ulna and radius. Oh, god, how the hell did that happen? Okay. Okay. Bruised ribs. Collar bone is damaged, but I'm not sure how. My back's broken, my neck is broken, and apparently, a chunk of my cheekbone's broken, and so's my brow, and my eyeball is missing. Damn, that looks cool. Am I going to get to go around with one eye, or can we fix that?"

"We... Well, we can take an eye from a cadaver. We lost a patient this morning, we can give you his."

Me'ran scowls a little. "Lost one?"

"He wasn't even hurt that badly--it took him two weeks to die in here. I don't think they know what they're doing," Yuusuke whines.

"Good thing I can't die, then, huh?" she says lightly, smiling. They start to work.

"So, you survived an attack from one of the great rulers?" one asks as he pushes her shin back into the flesh.

"Aaaagh-yeah."

"I'm impressed," one of the two women says. "Even Yuusuke-san had a hard time surviving his father's first attack."

Me'ran looks over at Yuusuke and grins. Sort of. "Had a hard time, Yuusuke?" she chuckles.

"Shut up. You've healed worse on me."

Me'ran smiles again. "What'd he do to you?"

He pulls his shirt down and shows her the scar on his chest.

"Ah, nice," she says. "Almost as good as my big one."

"Yeah, who needs tattoos when you've got scars? Anyway."

"You've r-aaaaaaaaagghhhh, FUCK what the hell are you DOING?!"

"Sorry, I needed to get your ulna back into place."

"_Goddammit_! Agh. Anyway. You've bulked up, Yuusuke," she says with a grin. "I think I missed you for a while before we even got here."

"It's been a week since we got here, and I've been training pretty hard. You're right, though; it's been a long time since I've seen you."

"Oh? Cool, then. How long? We haven't had a good conversation since Christmas, right?"

Yuusuke scowls as something in your arm makes a loud shlurp-ish noise.

"Ass," she mutters.

"Why am I an ass?"

"Because you keep scowling. I don't look that bad," she whines.

"Uh, they're pushing that bone back into your arm."

"I am fully aware of that, and it hurts, and you're making it really hard to ignore."

"Please hold still," commands one of the doctors, looking her in the face.

She strains to master the twitching muscles, but she can't make them stop. "I am holding still! Those muscles're contracting on their own. Alright, look in the pouch--Yuusuke, take the pouch—you still have it, right?." He looks around for a second, and then Hokashin, who apparently never left, held out the sewn skin. Yuusuke grins and holds it up. "Ah, good. Thank you Hokashin. Dump it there, Yuusuke," she commands, looking at a table next to her. Yuusuke looks confused, because she couldn't gesture and he didn't think to follow her eyes.. "On that table thing to your right, just under your stupid elbow," she insists in a low voice. He does so. "Alright, now, see the pretty semi-round one with blue veins?"

"Veins?" he asks, looking stupid.

"The little lines," she groans. "I swear, your teammate was a damn animal spirit, and you still have no remote idea!"

"Hey! Come on! I don't pay attention to Kurama's flowers, just the attacks!" He finds it, then puts it on her mouth, and she chews and swallows it, too.

"What is that?" one of the healers asks her.

"Oh, I'm going to have fun in here," she exclaims, happy that she'll have a place. "Finish healing. That should've numbed me to an extent. I'll teach you all I have to know later."

"I think you lucked out that he didn't kill you," one says. "From the feel of it, your organs tried to come out of your chest when he hit you in the back."

"Yeah, I know," she sighs. "That explains the pain in my chest after I came to after he hit me."

Yuusuke laughs quietly.

* * *

After what feels like hours, after they get everything back into place, they heal her, and then they decide to study a diagram of an eye, and the cadaver's eye they've got. It came out of a humanoid, and is therefore roughly the same size. She decides to sit up and test out her body. She finds spots they missed in her arms and hands, and something's off in her ankle, but she fixes those easily.

"Why couldn't you have kept your first eye a little more whole?" one of the demons whines. She gives him what she hopes is an obviously annoyed and threatening look. She guesses it is, because he smiles nervously and steps back. "I'm sorry," he says, "could you lay back down?"

Me'ran does so, then looks to Yuusuke. "You might wanna plug your ears--this is probably going to hurt, and I normally don't scream, but I have a feeling that this is going to be slightly different."

He nods, but he doesn't plug his ears.

This fixes. It takes a minute, but then they start doing something, and she can't bite back a cry of pain. They're prying up the eyeball on her cheek, she thinks. It's completely crushed in, but apparently, it still hurts like hell. And then it REALLY starts hurting, and she catches herself crying out in pain, but she makes no move to stop it.

"Why is she making that noise?" Yuusuke asks between one of her swallowed gasps and screams. He's got one ear uncovered.

"Exposed nerves. Plus, we are handling what was once her eyeball, Yuusuke, what do you expect?"

Me'ran starts to say something, but she's interrupted when they cut loose the eyeball that is no longer in one piece. "Y--AAGH!"

"Stop screaming."

"I'm not s---_GODDAMMIT, MOTHER FUCKING COCK-SUCKING BASTARD-ASS CHICKENSHIT SON OF A BITCH!"_(She switched back to English when they pressed her eye back into her socket and fixed her eyelids.)

However, once the pain ends, she starts testing her eye. She can see. She can see better than she's ever seen before.

"Whoa. Holy. Holy shit."

"It works?"

"Yeah... I can see... the light... and... That... Man, I didn't know how bad my normal eyes were, can you do this for my other eye?"

"No."

"Damn."

She tests out her eye, following her hand and looking at things around the room while moving her head. The eye sticks for a second, before it floods with water, which burns like hell.

"AAAGH!" she shrieks, pressing her palm over her eye.

"Salt on a new wound?" teases Yuusuke.

"Shut up! I'm going herb hunting, I'll be back in a couple of days," she whimpers, going down the stairs and outside.


	73. Life Again

Thank you, commenters. You really light up my day, did you know that?

-R.F.

_Life Again_

"Yes, very good, now shut up and leave me alone!" she spits at the five idiots crowding at the door. It's been two weeks. The other healers have pretty much gone home. Not too many people around here really need help, and when they do, she's so quick and efficient that the only reason anyone ever stays around for very long, or even for more than a few minutes, is because they're watching her study the effects of a new balm on the back of her hand or cleaning something. The only healer still here is a woman, and she's just here because she's got her eye on Toho. The only reason Me'ran has any work at all is because Yuusuke's monthly visits to his ancestor usually wind up being near-fatal.

The five idiots are at the door because Yuusuke wounded one of their friends, and she's shoving him outside. He had just had his arm amputated. It would grow back, but the cut needed to be cleaner than it was. Blasting off limbs is a messy business.

After she leaves, she starts playing with said severed arm. It regenerated the parts that had been blasted away, but the arm itself seemed to be completely satisfied with being an arm, instead of growing a whole new Terashira (the man whose it was) to be attached to.

Me'ran's testing the severed arm's reflexes with a mallet when a large figure comes into the room. She's never seen him before, but she's pretty sure she knows who he is. He's tall, with wild white hair, and pretty violet eyes and a long diamond-shaped face and tattoos. He's muscle-bound and tough looking, and she can see that he has no body fat left. She can smell the death in him, how long he's been dying and how long he has until he finishes. He'll be gone before a year is up.

"Hello, Raizen," she sings. "You are Raizen, right?" she adds, standing up and facing him. Something about him scares her, and she feels her stance tighten. "Your great-times-fourteen-to-seventeen grandson looks nothing like you."

He smiles in a very frightening way, but she thinks he's doing it on purpose. Something in her is stirred, and all by herself, she turns her attention back to the arm she was working on without even looking at him. She's frightened by her own actions, acting as if it's no big deal that a man-eater's in the room with her but she decides to get over it. He can't kill her. He's dying, too, she could make it faster.

"That makes you the smartass precocious human healer?" he asks. "And a royal pain in the neck, if you ask anyone that's tried to rule you."

"Very nice to meet you. I'm called Me'ran. Or Lady Healer, or Niniin, or Ninka, or Nihaku, or any other portmanteau of "human" and the various words for one in the medical profession. Yuusuke calls me Meru, sometimes. I prefer Me'ran," she says. The fear has completely vanished, though she does feel the strangest desire to push him out of here. His aura scares her, and it's hungry, and she never did like being able to feel death. She's almost "out of it" already, just being in here with him.

"Mm," he says as he enters the room. Damn. She looks up at him and starts looking him over. She's never seen one of his kind. Purely humanoid, probably a similar brain, judging by the fact that he bred with a human and the offspring that showed the demonism coped so well with it, not only with power, but Yuusuke changed physically, too... He interrupts the study by talking. "You've reformed things in here. It used to be a mess." Impressed tones enter his voice, and he sounds pleased. She's silently proud of herself.

"Yeah, I normally don't clean much, but the crusty blood was a little much," Me'ran hums.

"I understand and I agree."

"Someone that smiles like that could hardly be bothered by blood," she points out. "Quit drooling. Here, play with this," she adds, tossing him the arm she's been playing with. It'll be a good experiment. It'll let her know what's up with him and what shape he's in, and what his personality is, and how well the arm reacts to different stimuli.

Raizen begins laughing when he pokes the palm of the hand and it slugs his chest.

"Jeez, what are you, four?" she asks with a smile as she starts cleaning up what blood came out of the arm before she stopped the bleeding and cauterized it.

He pokes it again in the elbow, this time, with one of his long claws. It reacts by swinging around in its own defense and taking hold of his wrist in a firm grip. "Whose arm is this?" he asks with a manic giggle, baring his big teeth with his smile.

"It's Terashira's. Don't break it, I'm gonna train it to do my bidding," Me'ran answers, sitting and watching him play with it.

He looks up at her, then he starts to go back to the arm, but something stops him, and he just stares at her. The manic grin shifts to a less pleased, almost pained smile. She cocks her head to a side to show him her curiosity, but not willing to ask him directly what the smile's about.

"You remind me of her," he says simply after a minute, catching onto the gesture, she guesses.

"That's nice. Old girlfriend?" she asks. She doesn't say anything else, but that's gotten through well enough.

He nods and grunts an affirmative, "Mm."

Me'ran feels Yuusuke down the stairs, and she guesses he does, too, because both their heads snap to the door. "Ah, he's on his way up," Raizen says.

"Yeah, I hear that," she says with a sigh, trotting down the stairs to help whoever he injured, or him, come up the stairs.

"Man, why's the infirmary got to be on the top floor?!" Yuusuke demands as she picks him up. His leg is broken.

"The same reason you're injured. You can't not fight, and this keeps the ward from being taken out by flying body," she sighs. "You know what--you heal well on your own. Hold still."

Me'ran puts him back on the floor, letting him put his good foot down first, and then pushes his leg back into place. He screams in pain and punches her in the face by sheer reflex. Not only is she caught off guard by the blow, but he hits her so hard and she's so fragile that she falls back against the stairs and hits her head. No sooner than she hits ground, she sits up and clutches the back of her head and curls into a small ball. She feels the dent in her cheekbone where his knuckles broke it, and a developing knot on the back of her head where the stairs and it connected, but that's only after she shuts the pain out with the damage assessment, but as soon as she figures out that's what happened, the pain returns and hurts like hell, so she starts distracting herself. Her head should be broken, but the stairs decided to give, she guesses. Then she feels his hands touching her shoulders, and she picks her head up, making the ache in her head flare so much she has to put it back down.

"Aaahh... dammit!" she curses, but she hears her voice choking on the tightening in her chest.

"Me'ran...?" Yuusuke asks softly, concerned. He looks at the back of her head, and he tries to pick her head up for her so he can see if he really damaged her or something. He forgot how strong he was, or how weak she is.

"I'm okay, I'm okay... Ow..." she tells him, not looking at him so she can hide the broken cheekbone. He tries to look, but she turns her head and back to him and gets up and runs to the infirmary. Yuusuke tries to follow her, but his leg's still healing and he's stuck at a heavy limp.

"Me'ran?" someone asks from down the stairs. She knows she's heard the voice before, but she's not sure from where. Yuusuke's still behind her, so she has to hide her face behind her hand to go look.

A rat-faced woman comes into view from down the spiral stairs.

"Ah, Sazuna-san. It's been a while," Me'arn sings excitedly. "Give me a second and I'll see you," she adds returning to the mirror she uses to heal herself. (This isn't the first time she's been hurt—demons roughhouse and aren't used to dealing with a human in their midst, though she's made no move to persuade them to stop.) She can see the rat-woman in the mirror as she comes into the room.

"Yeah, it has," Sazuna agrees with a bright smile, looking her in the mirror-eyes. Then her attention moves to Yuusuke. "Is he the one that hit you?" she asks concernedly. Me'ran nods. Sazuna smiles, then slugs Yuusuke in the back of the head. He yelps and covers it.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?"

"For hitting Healer-san!" Jinta shrieks shortly before running and jumping and hugging her waist tightly.

"There's a naked goblinoid hanging on my robes," Me'ran mumbles softly, putting Jinta back on the floor easily. "Hang on, Jinta," she tells him.

"I don't think he leaves marks," Sazuna says. "Though you might wanna keep the pink part away from you," she adds as an afterthought, watching her as she prods at the chunk of bone that gave way until it's back into place, and heals it.

"Not funny," Me'ran sings with a smile. "Come here, Sazuna-san, I need a little help with something."

"So, she the one that kidnapped you after you slept all that time?" Yuusuke inquires as the rat-woman moves over to her and cocks her head to a side.

"Yeah," Me'ran agrees, turning to her table-thing.

"Why didn't you ask for my help?" Yuusuke demands, apparently insulted by her asking the rat-woman instead of him.

"Because you wouldn't help me," Me'ran answers with a playful smile. She's getting a scalpel out of a drawer and a fresh blade for it, and a seed that she got ages ago. Sazuna watches fascinatedly.

"How do you know?" he demands, moving over. "What do you want done?

Me'ran hands Sazuna the scalpel, and she takes the seed off the table, then moves her hair to one side of her head and pulling the shell of her ear down. She's ignoring Yuusuke at the moment. "Alright, now, there's this vein in the back, there, behind my ear. Can you see it?"

"You... Knife...? And... A vein? Meru, what the hell--if you're tryin' to commit--" Yuusuke babbles suddenly.

"There is reason to my madness, Yuusuke, now shut up. I have to trust a not-doctor with this, because I can't see and I don't know any other doctors other than your useless ones, so I have to be careful and so does she. She's already tried to kill me anyway, and she can't."

"How the hell do you know it's there?" Sazuna asks curiously. "I can see it," she adds. "That blue mark right here?"

"Yeah. The blood should be rushing, makes it real easy to see. And as for knowing it's there, I'm just smart like that. Cut a little hole in the skin, right next to it, and just barely connect with the vein."

She looks at Me'ran funny, and Yuusuke moves so he can watch the human's face. She had to lean down a little to keep her hair out of the way and so Sazuna would have easy access to her ear. "Are you sure?" Rat-Face asks. Me'ran nods. So Sazuna gets over the odd request and puts the cold metal to the Healer's ear and presses and pulls. It's bearable, but the pain still inspires a hiss. Sazuna steps back as the blood gushes from the vein. Me'ran puts her finger over it.

"Why did I do that if you're just gonna cover it?" she demands. Me'ran holds up the seed in her palm.

"Stick around for part two!" Me'ran answers snippishly. "I need you to put this in the hole with the smaller side up and halfway in the vein, but all the way under my scalp. Plant it in there."

Sazuna takes it and hesitates a second before she pushes the seed into her head. Me'ran reaches up and pinches the hole closed and heals it, scarring it badly because the skin cells she doesn't need to grow back are growing anyway. Which is fine, that part of her head should wind up with weird lumps anyway because of the roots, soon enough.

"Thank you," Me'ran says with a bow. She goes to her wash basin and gets the blood off her head and out of her hair before she lets the hair fall back into place.

"What is that?" Yuusuke asks.

"It's a vine. I found it an age or two back when I was still living in the Ningenkai. It feeds off certain nutrients in bodies, and it's medicinal. Most healers keep a corpse to grow it on, but that only lasts a year because of the plant's eating and growing habits. I did a little research--it feeds on nutrients that our bodies make out of the food here. I'll have to eat a little more than normal to keep it healthy and not pass out, but that won't be hard."

Yuusuke looks horrified, with his mouth slack and his eyebrows down. Sazuna looks amused, a smirk playing across her rat face. Me'ran feels that her job has been done, so she goes to sit down in her cushy wing chair sideways.

Sazuna sits with her. "Where's your fire demon?"

"He's not mine," Me'ran answers glumly, all of a sudden wishing that she would go away.

"Where is he?" she insists.

"With Mukuro," Me'ran states simply, getting up and starting to sort her tools, making sure Sazuna can see all the fascinating sharp things that look more like torture devices.

"Why's he with him? And more importantly, why aren't you there with him?" she asks, not daunted. "You two belong together; you shouldn't be here without him."

"Mukuro tried to kill me," Me'ran says, pointing at her purple eye. "He didn't want me there, so he tried to get rid of me, and he forbade Hiei to come with me." She looks surprised, then sits back and looks sympathetic for a few seconds.

"Oh. I'm sorry," she says, not knowing what else to say. Then she pecks the human's cheek and wanders away. Me'ran gets up to go herb hunting again. Goddamned Sazuna, reminding her of Hiei, she hadn't thought about him all damn day...

Me'ran hides the tear in her eye from the next one to come in (one of Yuusuke's sparring partners, Yuusuke says he has a crush on her, but she doesn't feel like it.), and she heals his broken-by-Yuusuke arm and then she flees to the small bath she has.


	74. Killing Time

Thank you, commenters. You really light up my day, did you know that?

-R.F.

* * *

_Killing Time_

Me'ran is very proud of her progress in the medical hall. She's got basically everything she needs. She's even begun to develop antibiotics and antivenins and vaccines. She's gotten good enough around here that she has completely run out of things she can do. She spends a lot of it researching plants and finding new uses for the flower she planted in her head. It's the plant that grows out of corpses and bodies. It has hundreds of uses. (Most healers keep one, though they have to have a corpse to grow it on. Me'ran doesn't want to keep a corpse, the smell of rotting demon is overpowering.) Not only does it feed off the nutrients in her blood (some of which are bad), but it also has medicinal purposes--the petals of the flower are pain relievers, the leaves get sticky when they get wet, basically band aids, and apparently, the nectar can be used as a drug, and enough is an anesthetic, but, from what she can determine, is highly addictive and causes horrible withdrawal symptoms. The thorns have proven (on accident) to be a natural antidote to most poisons. (She scraped one off into a flask of venom and the thorn started to sizzle. So she tested it out. It was pretty cool, too.) She's also been training the flower to wrap in her hair so that it acts like a ponytail holder.

Right now, it's... Well, at home it'd be sometime in June, though it's spring, here, she thinks. She and a guard that Raizen sent with her named Bungo (He's been half-assigned to guarding her when she goes outside, because the time before last she went out alone, someone tried to kidnap her for Youmi, and the last time she went out alone, someone tried to kill her.) are out in a patch of vegetation, herb hunting.

She's picking up the ones she knows she needs, right now, and she's trying to see the seeds—she really wants to grow her own—when she gets scratched. "Ouch."

"Watch the thorns," Bungo whines. She looks and starts tucking the herbs into one pocket and some more into the other pocket.

Then there's a soft "whumph" sound, and a manic giggle. It takes her a second for her to realize it was her. Her head is light, and she can't not grin like an idiot.

"Lady Heal--" Bungo says. "Ow."

Me'ran looks over and sees that Bungo got a scratch over his arm. He starts to go for her, but then he falls down and starts to scream. She crawls to him, but she's not real sure of what she's doing, or what to do. Bungo grabs at his arm, and he's foaming at the mouth, and he's shaking uncontrollably. Me'ran stabilizes his head and braces him as well as she can, and she reaches up to the vine in her hair and scratches off a series of thorns and scratch an "x" over his already-present scratch, then boxes it off, but whatever's wrong with these plants... Holy fuck.

Bungo makes a hissing noise in his throat, and he chokes on something, gagging, and throws up. She leans down and pushes a thumbful of the stuff in one of her pockets over his forehead to make the pain and gagging stop. He freezes and then falls still, comatose, and he dies after a few more minutes. She stares down at him and blinks dumbly. Already, she's forgotten what happened. She's high, she suddenly realizes. This is exactly. I'm fucking high as a KITE! What the hell?! Why'd it kill him?! Holy shit, that's not about to happen to me, is it?

Me'ran checks her pulse. It's completely normal. Her breathing and heartbeat are regular. She's in no pain. The scratch is normal-looking. Her stomach is fine.

Uh... Hee, hee, hee...Focus, come on, and do someth...th.th.th.th...thhhhh... Thing. What? What about thing?

PLANT. Thorns. Was. This. Dammit. Plant, thorns, plant with thorns, come on—there! Okay, no scratches for me, come on, Bungo-

Me'ran hauls the dead demon onto her back and she staggers back towards where she came from. Raizen's place. Then she drops Bungo to get another vine of the thorns, then goes back and hauls Bungo back onto her back.

"Me'ran?" Yuusuke asks. "What happened to Bungo!?"

"He's dead. Don't get too close, I don't want any accidental scratches." She holds up the plant she's got. "This did it. Killed Bungo. I'm high as hell."

Yuusuke nods a little. "So, what does that mean?"

"Means avoid the plant at all costs. You're a demon. They're demons. I'd test this out, but I think the smallest amount causes a painful death. I'll test it when I can dilute it, 'kay?"

"I'm not your test subject."

"Yeah, that causes some problems. I'm taking Bungo up to look at him, 'kay?"

"... Kay."

* * *

Bungo was poisoned. Those thorns are highly toxic. However, it apparently only attacks... the... Well. Apparently, it hits the brain. And demon brains (some, anyway) are not like human brains, and they have a different arrangement, and they work differently, with the different parts and all. Where her memory-thingy is, their equivalent to the medulla oblongata is, and along with that, they actively use their medulla oblongata. Or, at least, when they're deciding to control their power or anything about their bodies, whereas humans aren't even conscious of theirs... So, really, he had no chance. It's potentially fatal, with a big enough dose, even to humans, but apparently, that would take a LOT. Huh. Wait, so--their friggin'. Dude, this is cool. 

She gets so far into the dissection of Bungo's brain that she doesn't hear, see, or sense Raizen come in.

He touches her shoulder, and she screams and jumps up high enough to get over the table onto the other side of Bungo. He looks amused, but he also looks concerned, and he's examining Bungo's open head intensely.

"Holy fuck, Raizen..." Me'ran gasps. "Don't do that, I've been poisoned beyond rational thought and I'm paranoid as all hell. And I was playing. What do you need?"

"I wanted to know what killed him. If anyone's out for your life, I'd like to know," he says, looking at her and narrowing his eyes. "I'd also like to know if you were planning a mutiny and killed Bungo. I know you came from Mukuro, but you were in such poor condition, and my son trusts you, it didn't--"

"Raizen-sama, why would I be up here for so long doing nothing but research on ways to help you guys if I was just going to betray you? Don't worry about me, Mukuro hates me and even if he didn't, I'm not nearly strong enough to do anything to attack you or anyone else. Even the chemicals I do have to damage anyone are useless. No one's out for my life, either. It was a poisonous plant I didn't know about. Don't touch it, your body's too weak to process it, and I don't know if your brain is enough like that that it would be as bad."

"Me'ran-san?" Sazuna asks as she sticks her head in the door. "You screamed."

"I did. Raizen scared the shit out of me," Me'ran responds with a smile. She wishes she was sober, right now. She's surprised they can't see it.

"Ah. What... Is... That... A brain?!?" Sazuna asks, now, moving wholly into the room to stare at Bungo's brain, too.

"You've seen me untangling someone's heart. Why are you shocked to see a brain?" Me'ran asks, looking at it again. There's an interesting part of it that's dark blue, now, that was red a second ago, and she wants to look at it. Demons bleed, but their hearts don't pump... So would this be... proof of flowing blood?

"Well, he's dead. And you're taking it apart," Sazuna says, throwing off Me'ran's train of thought entirely. Dammit!

Me'ran decides to explain. Then she gets bored and distracted halfway through. "Well, there are five pieces to the typical brain, and where the chunk of thing that runs the body is on his brain is the memory part of my brain and that means that the memory part of my brain should be attacked by this stuff and killed it entirely and..." She stops talking. She realizes that she lost track of her statement about three words into it. "You know what; go away, I'm playing!" She hunches back over the table and starts picking at the parts the scratch had started to infect.

Raizen makes a sudden move. The process is different, this time, with her brain working the way it is, and what would have been a simple move to block is completely changed. Her mind flees, but her awareness heightens to the point that she almost panics. She can feel her own heartbeat, her lungs, the floor under her feet, the air around her, the breathing of the two demons next to her, even the blood rushing through her veins...

She feels her arm move, but it's beyond her control (as usual). She turns the direct blow into a glancing one, but she still winds up bleeding. Then she reaches back and throws Terashira's arm back at Raizen, hitting him hard enough and surprising him enough to make him step back. Sazuna stops Me'ran from throwing a vial of poison at him by taking hold of the human's wrist and pinning her back against the rat-woman by the waist. "You son of a bitch, the hell was that for!?" Me'ran demands before she gets a grip on herself.

Suddenly, her mind rushes back, her heightened senses fade back to normal, she takes a deep breath and relaxes. Sazuna waits a second or two before releasing the human girl. Me'ran pockets the poison again and straightens her robes. "Sorry, that was a reflex, I don't take well to surprise attacks, and, from the look of it, I don't need to be attacked while I'm not in my body or scared. Why did you scratch me?"

"Zuna said you can't die," Raizen says after a second. He looks truly surprised, blinking dumbly and staring at her.

Me'ran glares at Sazuna and swats her arm. "What the hell'd you tell him for!?"

"He asked why you were so special," she answers with a shrug.

"Dammit. Ow," Me'ran whines, shuffling to the side.

"Why's it matter? Why'd you freak out like that?" Zuna asks, following her over and trying to look at where he got the girl, but Me'ran has her palm over it.

"Fucking hurts when people try to kill me! When stuff tries to kill me, my body does this thing where it saves me, and reflexes more recently developed have gotten me to start attacking to get rid of the attacker," she answers. "Judging by latest observations."

"Why does that happen?" Raizen asks slowly. "Yuusuke never told me anything about you. Could have let it slip you were Undying," he mumbles, scratching his head with a claw.

"I didn't know you didn't know. It doesn't matter. And, in fact, when people find out—" and she gestures at her bleeding neck— "This is what happens!"

"You said ow. Why'd you say ow?" Zuna asks stupidly.

"I'm human!" Me'ran answers, shouting. "That shit hurts me!"

"Oh, yeah."

Me'ran sighs, pulls her hair back and wraps the vine that's begun to stray back around her hair and takes Terashira's arm back from Raizen and lets it grab onto her belt.

"Oh, is that what you've been doing with that arm?" Raizen chuckles. "Sazuna had some very different ideas."

Me'ran cuts her eyes at Sazuna, but shrugs it off and looks to Raizen and Sazuna in turn. "Get out of here," she commands coolly.

"Alright," Raizen says. Then Me'ran realizes he's staring at her, and she gives him what she hopes is a venomous glare. He doesn't seem fazed at all. "You're looking thinner than when you first got here," he tells her. Then he moves closer and touches at her face, right at under her eye, and he laughs. "Humans are so frail. You've begun to wither. You're not that old, are you?"

"I am not," Me'ran answers defensively. "And I don't wither, I'm not a flower."

"He's right, though," Sazuna agrees. "You remember when you stayed up for those thirty six hours when my troops got swarmed?"

"Yeah."

"You're looking like that. Only less pale, 'cos you got a tan. Well, you had a better one, but since you shut yourself in here..."

Me'ran nods, then holds her hand to the scratch on her neck and makes sure the blood stopped, then she puts Bungo's brain in a bottle to pickle for later study, and she goes to the bathroom to go bathe and ignores the fact that they're right, forgetting to even ask for leave from the king.


	75. Time, Time, Time

_Time, Time, Time_

It's mid-spring. She'll have been here a year in about a month and a half. And there is nothing to do, there's no one to take care of, other than Yuusuke, and she is bored out of her skull and depressed. Me'ran spends a lot of time thinking about the three weeks with the infantile Hiei while he was still under the influences of the Kansei potion, and how settled he was when she was with him, and she wonders if, perhaps, that's what's wrong with her, his not being here.

But she still has nothing to do, here.

This is why it's odd that Raizen has started to visit more and more often.

He usually comes up and talks to her, or sits on the counter or something and watches her as she pretends she's busy, playing with the medicines or reinventing the refrigerator.

Mostly, he's just watched, but every now and again, he'll start staring. She feels it, but she doesn't let him know it bothers her. He's hungry. She can forgive him that, even if she knows it's her flesh he wants to eat.

Finally, she can't ignore it.

"If you're gonna eat me, eat me," Me'ran barks over her shoulder while she's putting small dose-sized flasks of antivenins in the fridge before she turns to face him. He blinks dumbly and looks at her funny, cocking his head to a side and picking up an eyebrow.

"Eat you?" he asks, mocking puzzlement.

"Don't play dumb," Me'ran answers sharply. The staring's put her at unease, and she's busy bleeding herself into a vial so she can extract the antivenin she's spent the last week making.

"That's only a small part of what I was thinking about," he answers, narrowing his eyes. Me'ran guesses he's annoyed at the accusation. "You remember I told you that you reminded me of her."

"Ah, the old girlfriend," she says. Me'ran figures it out, now. It wasn't eating her _flesh_ he was thinking about. Hah.

"I have told only a few of her," he says simply. "Consider yourself honored."

Instead of letting him stare more, she decides to go ahead and strike up a conversation and, perhaps, scare him away. "Well, I can gather, she was a human, yeah?"

"Obviously."

Me'ran collapses into her chair while the antivenin and the rest of the blood separate. He sits with his knees up by his elbows like Yuusuke does when he's bugged, and he stares down at her. She feels the gaze going right through her, so she stares up at him and meets his gaze, hopefully to drive him off. He seems even more delighted.

"Even your eyes are like hers. Only a little more round. Also, the second one was-"

"Not purple. You can thank Mukuro for that one," Me'ran grumbles.

"I was aware," he grumbles back. He doesn't look happy at all with her continuing insolence, even though he's half smiling.

"You're still in love with her?" Me'ran asks him, now.

"Very much."

"Ah. I can relate. Why not bugger off, you're in the way of my concentration."

"I don't appreciate the defiance," the Toushin King warns unhappily, growling under his breath.

"Yes, you do, you're just not used to getting it anymore," Me'ran answers, not even shifting in her chair, just staring at his violet eyes with her mismatched ones.

He stares at the human womanling harder, and he lowers his feet to the ground and he moves closer to her.

At first, she is defiantly still, staring him down (or trying, but how do you stare down _three thousand years_?), but then he goes ahead and ups the stakes. He puts his hand down on her arm where it is resting on the arm of the chair, and he leans closer to her, putting his other hand to her neck, pinning her to the back of it. She tries to get up, but his grip tightens, and there's no way she can fight him. He laughs at the effort she puts into her calm escape. "That's the first time anyone's directly tried to deny me what I truly want," he says. "Even the failed attempt..." Then he puts his face to her neck. "You smell delicious."

"Eat if you're going to. You can't kill me, it would spare you the torture," Me'ran barks at him.

He lets go of her neck and he puts his weight on a different part of his hand, so that she's free to get up at any time. Despite this, he leaves his face in her neck and hair and breathes in her scent.

"I'd almost say you were her again, but she was far wiser and less... frail," he says. Me'ran can't name the undertones. She thinks they might actually be lustful.

"I'm not frail, I'm weak," Me'ran answers defensively. "And that's not even because I'm human, I'm sick."

He chuckles and moves away. He doesn't want to, and he's literally fighting with himself to do it. Even she can see his hands flexing, wanting nothing more than to take hold of her. "Sickened by what?" he mocks, crossing his arms and scrutinizing her.

"That which plagues you. Now, bugger off," Me'ran barks, moving back to her blood and helping the division. He flees.

* * *

A couple of days later, Raizen's stomach has stopped.

The day he let his inner predator out scared her. That day, she got the thorns from that plant, the one that killed Bungo and got her high, ground into a powder, to keep in an easily taken form. Not to poison him, of course, but herself. Today, she puts them in a cup of tea. Then she takes one thorn from her hair and grounds it into the same powder, or similar, at least, and adds a little water to make a paste. That's for when she's done it wrong, and so she can just run it over the vein in her mouth to help out.

Me'ran calls Sazuna, tells her that she's commanded everyone in the castle to refrain from getting hurt, then Me'ran tosses her a bit of gold a few people've been giving her to go get her a nice set of funeral robes for Raizen's funeral, and whatever the hell she wants for whatever.

And then the tea kicks in.

Once again, Me'ran's high after a few seconds, and she grins.

Almost instantly, Me'ran feels happy. She gets up and starts walking. She wonders a few times how long this is going to work, so she carries her tea with her, too, and she makes sure she can hide the dumb grin on her face.

Man, this is great shit, Me'ran decides. She can't feel her arms, and she's vaguely aware of her hands. It's like Nitrous Oxide at the dentist (laughing gas), only the oxygen dilution is too low. Even her ears are being flooded with an odd sound. And just in case this is too much, and it starts to hurt her, she reminds herself, I have that antidote stuff.

She decides that if Raizen bites her, he'll die quickly, with the amount of stuff in her system. It'll be a mercy. He'll probably bite.

Me'ran returns to her little branch of the hospital, and she finds her chair, a nice wing chair-like chair that's been fixed with cushions and is just low enough for her to rest her head back on the top. Ahh...

"Me'ran," a voice says. Me'ran jumps and looks at the large humanoid demon in the doorway. His eyes are red, and he's hunched over and his mouth is open and dripping with saliva.

"Raizen," she answers, sitting up taller than normal. Something about him just makes her want to show him she's not scared of him, and it always has, but she can already tell her heartbeat's going louder and faster than it ever has. She can feel it hammering against her ribs. He scares her.

He walks up to Me'ran quickly. She swears she feels phantom bites all over her whole body. He circles around the chair and traces his hand around so that he's got her shoulder tight in a grip, and his other hand is on her forearm, pinning her in her chair like last time.

"Are you going to eat me?" Me'ran asks. Her voice doesn't show the fear. Instead, it mocks him. She feels herself smiling. God, what's gotten into me?

His claws dig into her arms, and drool slides off his teeth onto the sleeve of her robe. He's frozen, though. He's hesitating. He doesn't want to.

"I poisoned myself this morning. To eat now is to die," Me'ran warns coldly. "Bungo died screaming--do you want to as well? Your body will take it even harder--you're tougher than he was. Do you want to starve later, or be poisoned now? You can't kill me. You know that."

The claws leave her neck, and he moves away. His eyes have gone back to violet.

"You remind me so much of her. Damn you," he whispers.

Me'ran smiles and pecks his cheek. "I'm sorry. Today's the end. I'll see you later, 'kay? I normally like to be with people at their last, but I think that might be your son's job, and not some strange human that happens to remind you of your downfall."

He nods slowly, then flees the infirmary. Me'ran lies her head back and closes her eyes and lets herself fall backwards forever.

* * *

A little later, Yuusuke comes in. A team's been sent to fetch Raizen's body, and another team's digging his grave. She guesses he's come here for comfort.

"Me'ran?" he asks as he comes in.

"Is he gone?" Me'ran asks, feeding herself the powder she made earlier. He nods. "I thought so. Do you want a hug? Or something for nerves?"

"Nope. I gotta." He pauses to think. Then he sighs dejectedly. "I don't know."

"The whole thing bothers you. Did he tell you why he swore off human meat?" Me'ran asks him, looking over her shoulder as she moves to her counter to gather leaves from some of the human world plants.

"Yeah, he told me. Wait, you mean he told you?"

"No, of course not. I gathered on my own after he said I reminded him of her," Me'ran corrects with a chuckle. He scowls again. She walks over and checks to see if his bite has closed. It has. He pushes her very gently away from him, then sits down on an examination table.

"It's not fair. He let himself die like that. He was powerful, and strong, and I'm sure he looked good before he went all Ghandi..." Yuusuke whines quietly. "It's not right that he did that to himself, he was starving himself and he was..."

"Love's a natural stupid pill," she tells him, going to a vat of boiling water (She always keeps it, hot water has thousands of good uses) and scooping some into a cup. Then she pours the herbs in there to make tea for him. While she lets it sit, he keeps talking.

"Over some dumb dead chick, too! He was at the peak of his power, and he stopped eating 'cos of one dumb dead chick! You... I mean, that's so stupid. I kinda..." She gets up and hands Yuusuke's tea to him. He sniffs at it warily. "There's nothin' in here that'll, like, make me sleep or woozy or anything, right?" the former detective asks, pointing into the cup.

"No, nothing mentally effective. Just something comforting," Me'ran answers, sitting back down with her knees up.

"I know he came in here a lot. Did you let him try to eat you?" Yuusuke asks after taking a couple of sips.

"Twice, he tried, but he stopped himself," she answers lightly. He snaps his head up to look at her, but she's not showing that it's any big deal, or that she even cares, so he decides it's not a big deal and he settles again, crossing his knees under him and looking displeased.

"Why..." he mutters.

Me'ran decides to try to explain it to him. He doesn't understand why Raizen would let himself die for the woman he loved's honor. Some dumb dead chick. Idiot. "Imagine, Yuusuke. I know your imagination doesn't work that way, but think for a few minutes and try to imagine. He would have eaten her if he could have. He fell in love with her instead. He fell in love with his food. Now, that would cause a series of thoughts, and it personalizes and humanizes or demonizes or whatever the hell--it changes the way you think about what you eat. It would kill your appetite if your food talked back, now, wouldn't it? And even worse if you fell in love with it, right?"

He stares at the floor really hard. "Yeah, I can see that," he says after a minute. She nods and smiles, then gets up and pats his head.

"Now, King Yuusuke--What are you going to do?" she asks, leaning down to look him in the face.

"Huh?" he demands, staring at her with huge eyes. She gives him a sweet smile.

"You're the King now," she points out insistently. "You need a plan of action."

"I'm going to Youmi's," he answers quickly, decisively. Good, then, he's already got the makings of a good king. "I figured that out already."

"Oh? What then?" Me'ran asks narrowing her eyes.

"Well, if he kills me, nothing. I'll just rot there. Hell, might even get word back to you and have you revive me," Yuusuke responds with a chuckle. He seems kind of uneasy.

"If you can manage that in less than a day, I can do it," Me'ran says lightly.

"Alrighty, I have a goal, now. If I die, get back to you before twenty-four hours are up. But I was gonna see if I could really pull a mindfuck."

"Oh?"

He smiles broadly, as if proud of himself. "No more kings. I'm hosting a tournament," he finally says. "Everyone fights. The winner's the new ruler."

"Alright. Good luck," Me'ran hums, leaning back in her chair. He grins proudly. There are inherent flaws in this idea, but she doesn't share them. As a neutral party member (she tries to stay out of shit), and as versatile as she is as a healer and a fighter (sort of) and a doctor, she is pretty much immune to whatever anyone does, unless they go all gung ho and try to kill her anyway. Which, most of the time, doesn't work. Che sera sera. But she does offer him a warning. "Don't die. I'd hate to have to set your body up for burial so soon after Raizen's."


	76. Sudden Changes

_Sudden Changes_

So now Raizen is dead. Yuusuke's not home, at the moment--he's gone to meet Youmi.

Me'ran found out what that stone Hiei gave her was--It's a tear. His, if she had to guess. Only his was black, rather than the oddly not-white ones Yuusuke was carving names into. Right now, she's trimming the herbs, picking off what she needs. She's also been telling everyone what Yuusuke's doing. As soon as the servants hear the words, "No kings", they all go home. She's pretty sure at least half the rule has heard, by now. If not the whole thing. Some stay. A lot stay. All the bald apostles stay, anyhow, but no one comes up here.

When everything is "straightened out", the palace has house guests. About. One, two, three... Fuck it. I don't feel like coming out of here, doesn't matter how many there are.

Me'ran shuts the infirmary off and burrows into writing out plant uses, since she can't draw.

And this goes well, up until the very large red man with horns comes into the room carrying an intoxicated woman. "I apologize for barging in, but I can't find a spare bed, and she needs somewhere to sleep... Who are you?" At first, he seems completely unaware of the human girl, and he's looking around the room as if expecting someone to be here. Me'ran supposes that he was looking for youki, and her reiki is so meager until she gets pissed off that he can't feel it at all. When he sees Me'ran, he leans down to her height and cocks his head to a side. "You're a human," he says. "Just like Raizen Junior-"

Me'ran tries to let him finish the statement, but she can't stop the laughter at his new title, and she snorts and cackles. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry... Here, lay her here," Me'ran offers, pointing at a bed, one of the nicer ones. "I think I actually found something for hangovers..."

"Uh," he says at first. He was caught off guard by your behavior, how you reacted to his arrival and to Raizen Junior, and then the figuring out of what was wrong with the woman in his arms. "Well. How'd you--"

"She's still got her gourd. And her breath is worse than Yuusuke's after a binge. Lay her down; I won't be able to reach her if you're holding her." Me'ran climbs onto a counter, or an equivalent of, to reach the plants she needs, and she snips off a few of the buds and sit on the counter and gather the petals and put down the... Dammit, what is that part of the flower called? Fuck it--she knows how to use it.

By the time Me'ran drops off the counter, he's laid her down on the medical table, and she leans up to her and she licks one of the petals and puts it on the woman's forehead. Then she puts her palm over it to make the pores there a little more susceptible to the chemicals in the flower, and then she puts the rest of the petals in a bag and hands it to the big red guy.

"I don't know how long you're going to hang around here, so here," Me'ran says with a little bow. "For lack of a better way I've found, you lick 'em and stick 'em on her forehead."

He bows back to the human girl, looking confused and surprised. "Thank you, Miss Healer."

Me'ran sits down on the counter and starts back to grooming the vine in her hair, snipping off the dying flowers to make room for the new ones.

"You are the human healer, right?" he asks as he watches her. "I've heard about you."

"Yeah," Me'ran sighs annoyedly. She doesn't know who told him about her, but she isn't pleased to hear it.

"M. M. I used to know your name," he continues, trying to start a conversation. She sighs again, hoping he would leave her alone. He doesn't catch on.

"My name's Meruran. Most people know me as Me'ran. Yuusuke calls me Meru."

"That was it. I had no idea you were working for Raizen. It's been a long time since I've even left my house," he hums. So he heard of her outside the castle. Dammit, means she can't slug Yuusuke for telling him.

"She your wife?" Me'ran asks, indicating the intoxicated woman on the bed, really wanting to get the conversation off her.

"Yes, my lovely Koku. And I'm Enki. Very pleased to meet you."

Me'ran bows a little and Enki bows back.

* * *

It's quiet for a while, so she decides to depart and go get food. Me'ran comes back up after a few minutes and sees Enki's large, white-clad back. His black-haired head is ducked down, and he seems to be busy with something. Koku's still out cold, Me'ran acknowledges as she moves closer to them. Enki is staring very hard at some of her tools, holding up and studying one that she got from another healer. She smiles to herself as an idea occurs to her. She creeps closer to him, padding on her bare feet silently across the clean stone floor. 

Then she touches his back and asks, "Tchya doin'?" in a loud, high voice. It's a great sight to see a ten foot tall, fat, red, giant with horns jump in fear. Especially when the one inspiring the fear is a little over five feet tall, probably one tenth his weight and is one twelfth his age. He drops the tool and whirls around to face her.

"Aaah--Me'ran-Healer, ah, ah-" he stutters, trying to come up with an excuse. Me'ran smiles sweetly, and he stops stammering.

"You want to find something that's truly fun to play with?" she asks him. He looks confused, but then she tosses him Terashira's arm. "Play with that, it plays back." He catches it, then drops it, then picks it back up.

It starts swinging around, and feeling up his arm and pokes him back when he touches at the palm. "This is incredible. We haven't seen Raizen in so long, I had no idea any of this was up here... Last time I came up here, it was... At best, it was a nightmare. That was a thousand years ago, though."

"I've only been here a year," Me'ran explains. "I had to clean up a lot of this stuff, it was messy."

He nods slowly. "It's impressive work you've done." Then he decides to look closer at the human and he leans closer. "Um. Why is one eye purple?"

Me'ran rolls her eyes and sits on the counter and sighs, hoping to signal her irritation. "Because the other one burst," she grumbles unhappily.

"Dangerous for humans in Demon World, huh?"

"I lived here for two months before that happened, and it took a pissed off Lord Mukuro."

He scowls, as if confused, and he leans closer. "Well, why'd he do that?"

"We got into it over something stupid. In short, I pissed him off," she spits lightly. Me'ran almost listens to that little bastard part of her mind that wants to blow Mukuro's secret, but she decides to keep it to herself. If Mukuro finds out people are finding out, she could probably narrow it down to Me'ran and a few other people and probably wouldn't stop at killing all of them. Me'ran smiles and pats Enki's huge horned head. "There's a bed made to support someone your size in that room over there--I can move it, or you can, I don't care. I've got to go to bed," Me'ran tells him, before she goes to her bedroom.

* * *

Kurama shows up a few days later. Me'ran heard something went between him and Yuusuke, and some old friends of theirs that she'd never met. She tries to avoid letting Kurama see her, for fear of how he'll react to the damage inflicted to her by Mukuro's bitchiness and Hiei's negligence, and by anything recent. She doesn't leave her bedroom (which is adjacent to the medical ward), and the only time the doors open, she's sending Terashira's arm to get food for her. 

Yuusuke, however, lets it slip that Me'ran works here and Kurama comes up almost immediately. She doesn't open the door for him, but he gets in anyway with a plant going under the door and unlocking it for him.

She expects Kurama to run to her immediately, but he's frozen after he gets the door open and he looks blatantly surprised, with his mouth falling open and his eyebrows shooting up and eyes going wide. "Incredible improvement," Kurama says, first. "This room is very different from the others, much cleaner and better light. From what I heard, even from people on his behalf, his kingdom was easily the least technologically advanced, but you have a sink and a refrigerator."

"Least technologically advanced? I've seen the inside of Mukuro's palace, that's a pile of crap. Man, Raizen's place must've sucked before I got here," Me'ran whines irritably before she turns to Kurama. He crosses the room and she lets him kiss her cheek before she moves away and sits down on a counter. He follows within a couple of steps of her. Her appearance has changed, and he seems to notice this. He, first, pulls back her hair to see the vine Sazuna helped her plant into it, and he smiles.

"That's one of the best specimens of Corpse Vine I've ever seen," he compliments. "I've wondered what they looked like on a living host. And as much as I dislike that you have lost an eye, the purple matches the vine almost as well as the blue does the flower." And he's quiet again, before he adds, "Your hair has gotten longer." Then he remembers himself and steps back, then pulls up a chair and sits near Me'ran. "Good to see you again," he says after a minute more of quiet, but even then, his voice is soft. "Yuusuke told me you were here. He said that he found you a week after he got here, mangled by Mukuro."

"Sucks when you're right, huh, Kurama," Me'ran grumbles. She almost adds "you self righteous bastard" but she keeps it to herself.

"I see that it didn't leave you unscathed, either," Kurama says, looking at the replacement eye.

"Yeah, he was the first to leave something besides a scar as a mark of damage," Me'ran agrees.

"Why did he hurt you? What did you do?" Kurama asks. "You knew better than to mouth off to him, surely, but what could you have done to inspire him to... what was it Yuusuke said... 'twist' you 'all to fuck'?"

She smiles to hear Kurama swear, then sighs again as she remembers the damage done. "Nothing," Me'ran finally tells him. "I didn't do a goddamned thing."

"Why did he hurt you?"

Thinking of a lie, she grows angry with the bitch for what she did all over again, and Me'ran decides to let herself lash out. "Because she saw that Hiei and I are, or were, in love, and she was in love with him and wanted me out of the way," Me'ran spits. Used to, she'd keep Mukuro's secret for her, bless her with a little grace that she normally keeps in reserve for people she truly does respect, but she's been so sick over Hiei (she knows that's what's causing the depression) and she's just... pissed right now.

Kurama looks genuinely shocked. He is so surprised that he's fallen completely limp in his chair, and his mouth is working and he's looking for a focal point, something to look at to focus on and steady himself. His hands wander from his face to the arms of the chair to his lap, to each other, until he clenches them in his lap, then leans on his hand and puts his other hand in his lap, before he can finally talk. "She? In love...? With Hiei? I was suspicious when he... she... called him, but I had no idea..."

"Yeah. Of all the ways to be proven right, it had to be the one that was completely out of the blue, huh?" Me'ran asks him bitterly. Her voice has been reduced to a mournful creak.

"Where was Hiei?" he demands suddenly, doing the same thing as Yuusuke when he found her. His voice is pissed off, and he looks heated for these seconds, sitting up in his chair, bracing his hands on the arms of the chair, looking her dead in the face.

Me'ran lunges forward and seizes his arm, hoping to get his attention firmly on her, not on the subject of his rage. She does not want him seeking Hiei out and hurting him for this, and for that, she needs him to listen to her, and listen well.

"Kurama," Me'ran says first. He looks at her, narrowing his eyes, standing up and looking down at her. His arm grips hers tightly, but not so tight that it hurts.

"Do not defend his case if he doesn't deserve it," he says first. He's got his attention on her again, but he's still pissed off. Me'ran breathes a little in order to calm herself down, and stares Kurama in the face, wishing she could show him with her eyes that even if it were Hiei's fault, she's forgiven him and so should Kurama. "Why didn't Hiei protect you?" Kurama asks, now, sounding less pissed and more concerned. "He warned you that he wouldn't, and if that's what he's done, I don't care if you've forgiven him, I will not. It's not right that you should wind up so hurt so many times for him."

Ah, I get it, now. He thinks I took it because Hiei wouldn't help. Me'ran smiles and shakes her head. "Mukuro got rid of him. Told her henchman to take him away before she did anything. If she had tried to hurt me before he left, he would have gotten us both out of there before she even opened her mouth in my general direction. And she threatened to hurt him when he did step to my defense, after he found me. I got her to back off by threatening to kill him. He couldn't have done anything, other than be killed, and that wouldn't have done any good, Kurama, and you know that. This way was best case scenario--we're both alive and whole."

He doesn't say anything for a minute, until, finally, he sighs and sits back down. "I'm sorry, Me'ran."

"For what?"

"I'm sorry that you've been separated from him. He truly loved you, and I know you loved him as much if not more," he answers, reaching up and petting the side of her face with his fingertips.

Me'ran nods, then leans her head to one side to rub the blue eye, which has begun to tear, and to get his hand away from her. "I know that."

"It's taking its toll on you. You're starting to look... older. Even sick. You need to be taking better care of yourself," he adds with a slight scowl. His palm presses to her cheek, and he brushes under her eye with his thumb.

Me'ran swats at his hand to get it away from her and curls up on the counter, annoyed, overall, with Kurama's behavior. "You and everyone else, dammit! What the hell is it with that eye that people find so damn indicative of my condition?" she snaps. He's the third that's done that!

"The flesh there is darkening," Kurama explains. "In the way one's eyes darken after lack of sleep, or if they're sick. Yours are no different. Have you been sleeping? I know you've been eating, at least enough to sustain the Corpse Vine, else it wouldn't be doing so well."

"I sleep, I just don't rest," Me'ran sighs. "And I eat. I just. I don't know what it is. I just. It'll go away. The hell is it with everyone...?"

"I was simply concerned for you. You're no less beautiful than normal, but it's still rather distressing to see you in such poor shape. I won't deny that I much preferred the memory of you in March before you came to live here. You were lovely, then," he mutters. He's blushing a little.

"Back when my hands were stained by blood and my eyes were blue," she mutters.

"Not that I have any objection to your appearance, now," he adds with a wry smile. "You're still the same young woman you were, if meaner."

Me'ran laughs a little and sighs and lean back. He leans closer to her face. He wants to kiss her again. She's about to let him (She's missed being so close to someone that loved her, even if it's not Hiei, that she's willing to offer him this grace and let him, and regret it later), but then they both hear someone coming up the stairs to the door. Both of their heads snap around, and Kurama moves away from her, paling a little. He does probably not want to be caught being this lustful.

She hears soft footsteps, not quite bare feet, but still slapping the floor the way bare feet do... A strange voice calls from the doorway.

"Kurama-san?"

"Who's that?" Me'ran asks without looking at the door. Instead, she drops off the counter and goes to start cleaning up something that she just noticed. It's in her habits to look busy so people leave her alone.

"Touya. We met during the Dark Tournament, before we met you," Kurama explains simply.

"Ah."

There's nothing to clean, now. She straightens the bottles and looks toward Kurama, already annoyed with the arrival.

"You can leave, now," Me'ran groans impatiently as Kurama stands back up. Then another voice sounds up the stairs, and she hears the steps in the room. Also barefoot. Me'ran turns to look. There's a young man with blue hair and blue eyes, and another demon with red floofy hair and pants, and also blue eyes. The red-haired one is the one that just came in.

"Lookie there!" the red-head says very quickly."A human! Kurama's got a girlfriend, then, has he? Wonder when that happened!"

Me'ran drops into his accent and glares at him.

"I'm not his girlfriend, ya ninny, an' there's nothin' here to suggest such a thing, an' you know it!"

Kurama seems unable to stifle his smile.

"She's human," Touya says incredulously. "What would a human be doing here?"

"Dammit, don't talk around me, I'm right here," Me'ran snaps, rearranging her antivenins in an attempt to get them to leave by being busy.

"My apologies. Why are you here?" he replies quickly, not daunted by her anger or attempts to ignore him.

"It's complicated—Kurama, stay away from those—I know you can help them, but I don't want you to."

"I wasn't going to touch them, I was admiring how well you've done," Kurama says, pointing at the plants. "What arrangement have you got them in?"

"The ones I use most are in the front. I've been trying to breed them, but the only way I know how to do that is to put them in a glass tank and let a few bugs or something loose in them, or a wind tunnel or something."

"Mm. I'm impressed, really--even I didn't know some of these had medicinal qualities," he mumbles.

"Before I made the move here permanent, I'd travel a lot over the lands and learn from other Healers. You have to mix--Who the hell are you?" Touya's opening the door a crack and then he moves out of the way. Me'ran looks to see another head coming in. A tall blue-mohawked man stumbles in. He's got a bottle in his hand. Suddenly, he looks green, and she pushes a cart with a basin on it in front of him and let him throw up into it.

"Dammit," Me'ran whines. "Kurama, do you always carry around an entourage?" she asks as she takes a leaf off a plant and goes to the blue-haired man. He looks at Me'ran funny for a second. She holds the leaf up. "Say 'Ah'," she commands. His already-confused face twists to one of even deeper confusion, and he says, "uh". So she takes advantage of that and puts it in his mouth. Then she takes the basin of puke and pushes it to a drain in the corner and washes it down that with water from the faucet. (There's a demon down there that eats whatever she throws down there, so she rewards him with a few mint-ish leaves, too.)

"Hoo ah you?" the big guy demands, sticking his tongue out and looking at the leaf she put in it.

"Put that back in. I'm Me'ran," Me'ran answers sharply, cleaning out the basin and putting it back on the cart.

"What the hell's up with this sheila?" he asks the other three, pointing at her. Touya and the red-headed one shrug, but Kurama is hiding his face so she can't see the smile.

Me'ran decides to explain herself, what's up with the sheila. "She's in a bad as hell mood. And you're mucking--DON'T!" she shouts at Kurama--he's about to pick up the poisonous plant that she's yet to learn the name of. All three stop, and Kurama looks at her curiously.

"What?" Kurama asks innocently, looking surprisingly like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"That plant, don't touch it," she orders sharply.

"Why not?"

"Well, for you, the high would be unimaginable. But there's still the risk. It's very dangerous to demons. I don't know if it's the effect on one's brain or not," Me'ran explains. "You other three definitely need to stay the hell away from it. Just a scratch killed my bodyguard."

A small monkey-eared boy comes in and climbs onto the big blue-haired one's back, interrupting what she was about to say, which was, "Now get the fuck out of here."

"Chuuu!" cries the monkey-boy.

Me'ran leans against her counter. Might as well play friendly for a second. "Okay, Touya, Chu, I don't know you, and I don't know you," she mumbles, pointing at them and calling what she does know.

"I apologize," Kurama says softly, looking mildly abashed once again. He's got his head down and his shoulders low. "I didn't realize that I was being followed, and I don't think any of the others realized they were, either."

"Oh, is this where you went to, Kurama?" a fifth voice demands. He's talking like a girl who's had a little too much time with a parent in the mirror, calling herself beautiful and brushing her hair. Something about it grates her nerves, and she now wants to throw something. Fuck friendly.

"Hey, Kurama, do me a favor, and organize them before I unleash the form of whoopass I have patented since living here?" Me'ran growls warningly. "I've been in kind of a bitchy mood since I lost Hiei, and I'm much faster to just kick ass than I used to be."

Kurama moves forward and pulls all their attention to him, and then he gets them all to line up, and he moves next to them. "My apologies, Me'ran. These are Touya, Jin, Chu, Rinku, and Suzuka." Then a sixth one sticks his head in the door. He's got blue hair and pink eyes, and he looks like a girl. "And that's Shishiwakamaru," Kurama adds.

"Mm. Why are they all here? You I can forgive because you found out I'd been mangled, but everyone else was in good shape, except Chu who probably needed that good purge to keep drinking."

"Ah, well. We tend to follow one another around," Touya says politely. "Since none of us are familiar with this place, but none of us want to hang around the others."

"Hoo's this sheila?" Chu asks, getting close and putting an arm on her back. "Right prett--Ow!" His hand patted the vine's thorns, and he withdraws a slightly bleeding hand.

"I have thorns," Me'ran warns, pulling his hand down to her hand's level and poking each spot to heal it, leaving no pain.

"This is Me'ran. Perhaps you've heard of her--she's got a few other names. Lady Healer is one, but... Me'ran, are you aware that you've got numerous names, and people all over the place have heard of you? You should learn to introduce yourself."

"Why am I so special?" she whine. "Damn people can't learn to just shut their mouths, huh?"

"Human medicine is impressive, here. Stitches are not unheard of, and neither are herb healings, and the energy healing, but you use all three and then things that no one has ever heard of. Plus, humans are more adaptable than demons are, so you learn faster, whether you have the abilities we have or not. Also, you're a very good doctor in that you don't take payment without it being put in your hand for you, and even if you do lose one, which is uncommon, you take good care of them to the end," Touya explains in his soft voice.

"The human bit helps, too," agrees Rinku. Me'ran blushs a little, then kind of hurries over to her plants to starts picking at them to get away from them.

"Ah, yeah--Mukuro had a little message for Kurama, and 'ee sent this little messenger boy with blue skin. He gave me a note to give to you. He said Kurama'd know where you were, but I forgot about it 'til now," Chu says. Me'ran nearly falls down, but she catches herself with her palm on the counter, pushing herself back to her feet and pausing to breathe again before she turns to look at Chu, who is digging around in his vest and boots/shinguards, whatever the hell those things are, and she moves forward. Her whole body's gone numb for shock. She stands next to him until he hands her the paper, and she nearly runs back to the empty counter, but she doesn't.

"Are you okay?" Kurama asks softly, leaning away from the others, who have fallen back into their loud discord. "You paled."

"Of course I did. I haven't heard from him all year. The last time I saw him, my eye was hanging out onto my cheek and that bitch was threatening to kill him."

He ignores the statement, and looks at Me'ran piteously and touches at a bit of hair that isn't held by the vine. "If it's bad news, it's alright to weep, you know."

"I know," Me'ran snaps. "Shit, I'd cry even if it was good news, just remembering the fucktard..."

"And. I don't know, and this will sound very silly of me to tell you, but I'm here," he says.

"I'm fully aware of that--I was aware of that when you knocked on my door begging me to let you in, and even more aware after you unlocked the door and let yourself in. Now, do me a favor, let me read my letter in peace, and do you see that Hakka plant?"

He looks over and sees it and nods. "Yes, but--"

"Give one of those to Chu and another to the blonde one, because if he's not about to puke, then I'm a boy and Mukuro's going to come through that door and confess her love."

Suzuka was looking rather green. He had discovered Terashira's flopping arm shortly after Bungo's pickled brain. Kurama looks amused and leaves her side. She sits on the counter and hunches over her letter, kicking her feet off the counter.

The writing is not in English or Japanese, but she's so familiar with the demon writings and literature after this year and few months that she can read it, and what she can't read, she can figure out. She has to get a pen and start writing a translation on the margins of the paper, though.

_Meruran. If that's not your name, then I'll hunt you down and kill you myself for even unfolding the first crease in the paper. If it is you, then that oaf managed to get the letter to you, and I won't have to leave my new home to find him, kill him, and give this to you myself._

_I know why she attacked you. She's also forbidden me to come see you, and she's threatened to permanently damage more than your body, or at least eye, if I tried to contact you. Naturally, this made me even more determined to do so._

_I've heard rumors about you. Little ones, seeing as she's also forbidden the words "human" or "healer" in her presence. I almost don't want to admit how relieved I am that you've survived. What little she's heard about you has pissed her off even more--she hates that you've actually managed to live well for the last year._

_I'm participating in the tournament Yuusuke's proposed. You should become a nurse. Do not talk to me in her presence, no matter how many people you've helped are around--you know what she'll do when she's angry._

_Do __not__ talk to me in her presence. Wait. In fact, __please__ wait. I don't want to have to see you in that many pieces ever again._

_Do __not__ write me back. Do __not__ try to contact me. Stay there, where you're safe._

_-Hiei_

Then, in a different handwriting at the bottom of the paper in a corner, accompanied by a dumb little doodle of a horned happy face...

_Hi, Me'ran-Healer-Lady! Please don't write back. I know it seems mean to keep you two separate when you both obviously love each other very much, but Mukuro-sama really really really REALLY hates you. But talk to him as soon as you can, he looks deader than most corpses I've seen!_

_From Kani-chan._

_P.S. Don't tell Hiei I wrote on his letter. He'll kill me. I didn't read it, but don't tell him anything, okay?_

Me'ran smiles to herself. Damn Kani.

"I see that it wasn't bad news," Kurama says. He's probably been watching her the whole time, after he tamed his little crew to keep their hands to themselves. She can't find it in herself to be angry about this, or even slightly bothered.

"I'm just happy he remembers me. That he gives a shit enough to tell me that he doesn't want to see me in that many pieces ever again is heartwarming," she says. "God, he's a weirdo, just can't say "I love you" like a normal fucking person, can he?"

Kurama laughs quietly, but with a scowl. "He's never said it?" he asks curiously.

Me'ran smiles at him and shakes her head. Then she remembers--"Well, he did, once. After Mukuro beat the shit out of me, as I was leaving." Kurama looks fairly shocked, and also put out. She continues to smile and pets Kurama's hair, before she sees something going on behind him and gets up to run. "No, no, no, no, CHU! STOP!"

He freezes and the bottle of Dokuja antivenin wobbles dangerously on the counter. Me'ran runs and puts it back up.

"Sorry, sheila, I was lookin' at--"

"I don't care, stay away from anything glass or with liquid in it," she spits venomously, glaring at him so hard that he steps away from her, never minding that he could easily put her through the wall with a wayward swing of his arm. The others move away from whatever they're examining, too.

"What is that?" Kurama asks, pointing at the flasks, trying to settle her with a distraction.

"They're antivenins," Me'ran tells him, still glaring at Chu until he backs away sufficiently from everything. "The second time Hiei brought me to the Makai, he got bitten by something poisonous, and then I had to poison myself to save his ass before I got stuck here, and I've encountered several similar cases, so I decided I'd keep a collection."

He nods, and when she turns back to face him, he very smoothly returns his hand to behind his back. Me'ran thought it was a gentlemanly sort of stance, but apparently, he was actually hiding something.

"What have you got?" Me'ran asks him, narrowing her eyes. Why would he be hiding whatever he's hiding?

"I was checking on something," he says abashedly with a slight blush rising in his face. He didn't expect Me'ran to notice. "You have keen eyes," he admits.

"What were you checking on?" she asks, not to be distracted by the compliment. She starts to move around to look behind his back, but he draws it out of its hiding place. It's a small calculator-looking thing, then looks up at her face for a reaction, wondering if she'll know what it is. She takes it out of his hand and sits down on the floor, a normal behavior when she's found something she wants to study that she can't dissect. The number reads 9276, but it doesn't make any sense to her. The buttons are labeled in something besides Japanese or English, but after a little bit of figuring it out, she figures it's remotely derivative of English, surprisingly. The letters are actual letters, not symbols--and she can read...

"Youki?"

"Sort of. I had to reprogram that so that it would be able to read you--you run off reiki, not youki. You are surprisingly weak, honestly. I did not expect that little, especially this early in the morning, without the chance to spend it. I don't think mine was ever as low as yours is, even before I developed my powers in my first body, much less this one."

Me'ran wonders if it's insulting, and she's trying to come up with why she would be this weak, or strong, not knowing which her normal state is.

One of Yuusuke's sparring buddies comes into the room with a fist-sized hole in his chest. His name's Daisuke, he usually winds up at least a little broken after he and Yuusuke play, but this is rougher than expected.

"What the hell were you doing?" Me'ran barks.

"He got me, he got pissed off and hit me," he answers, nearly collapsing. Me'ran catches him and picks him up, and carries him to a stretcher and heals the hole easily. He thanks her, then leaves. Kurama's little mini-army has already departed, except Touya, who is staring fascinatedly at something pickled. He's faking it; he's watching Me'ran and Kurama.

"Your ki shot up to nearly fifty thousand when you saw him," Kurama mumbles, mostly to himself. "I'm also wondering what it gets to be when you're angry. It's still low, though. I'm rather surprised you have the physical power that you do, with so little ki behind it."

"What? Fifty thousand's a high number, ain't it?" she asks, quirking an eyebrow.

"Under half of the lowest levels of my little entourage," Kurama tells her. "I'm not sure what my own is—" Me'ran can tell he's lying—"but I know that theirs," and he gestures at the Touya, and towards the door, "are at least a hundred thousand each. I think you would count as, perhaps, a upper C class, possibly lower-middle B class, if you were a demon."

"Well, it's good to know that I can have my ass kicked with so little effort," Me'ran tells him in a louder, clearer voice, to express her irritation with him. "I feel better, now, though. I'll see you at the tournament, alright?"

Me'ran shoves him out the door and blocks his way back inside. He allows her to keep him out. "Touya, out of here," she adds. As the blue-haired young man leaves, she closes the door and locks it.

"Farewell, Me'ran," Kurama calls through the door. She kicks it in response, then dances around the room with a giggle.


	77. At the Tournament

_At the Tournament_

Me'ran is among the millions that go to see the tournament. She's joined the medical team, so she gets to wander freely among the fighters (Mainly to make notes on the fighters, what they are, what they'll need, current stats, if one hasn't seen another before). The human scent is masked by the year in Demon world and the flower, but she's still careful to remain in the shadows. In fact, she's wrapped her face and hair up into a mask-like thing ((Like Genkai's in the Dark Tournament.)), and she keeps her face down. 

Right now, she's following Youmi. Yuusuke's hard to follow, but Mukuro and Youmi each get at least ten feet clearance, and Mukuro hates her. It helps that Youmi is nearly ten feet or so tall, and therefore easy to spot. Youmi's probably going to notice that she's following him, and the little brat that looks just like him called Shura keeps looking over his shoulder, so she fades in and out of following him, letting herself fall behind--he's still easy to find.

He seeks out Yuusuke, so she goes and waits in the shadows. Shura puts on an adorable show, but right after he leaves, Kurama and Hiei walk up. Me'ran searches the area for Mukuro, and, satisfied that the scary whorebitch is nowhere within range, she moves close to Hiei's left, between him and Kurama, and she stays very still. His Jagan glows a little, so she knows he notices her, but she keeps her head down, anyway.

Yuusuke talks to the other two, but she can tell that there's a distance between all of them. Me'ran moves closer, bit by bit, but she doesn't talk at all, and hangs out behind Kurama and Hiei.

"Are you okay?" Yuusuke asks. He probably doesn't realize it's her. She feels his eyes searching her for evidence of who she is, or what she's hiding. The clipboard and a badge should indicate that she's a doctor, but she has been kinda standing there for a while. "If you are, could you fuck off?"

Me'ran pulls her mask up a little and lets her head out, and he laughs. "Ah, sorry, Meru, didn't recognize you. Nice mask"

"Me'ran?" Hiei asks, sounding a little surprised. When Me'ran looks at him, she sees the shock and hurt on his face. He must not appreciate the condition she's let herself slip into.

"You're looking a little different yourself, somehow," Me'ran answers softly, pulling her mask back on. And he does look a little worse for wear. He's thinner than he was, and his eyes are slightly different, showing a different sort of softness, almost weakness, and even his stance is more defensive than it used to be.

He ignores her statement. "They should have at least found another blue eye," he spits. It's his way of saying, Good to see you're alive.

Me'ran ignores his hostility, but she can't hide her own bitterness. "How's Mukuro?" she asks, trying to keep her tones light, but not laughing. She smiles anyway.

"That's not funny," he spits, turning his head away, now. Me'ran wonders why he did that, but he even goes as far as to turn his shoulder to her, as if trying to fend her off.

"Of course it is. You know how much I like it when people hate me for something stupid," Me'ran hums, hurt by this. She keeps it hidden, though. She wants to go touch him, but she doesn't.

"Did you know she was a woman?" Yuusuke asks her, suddenly, doing as he's always done and distracting the conversation from the darker subject. "You're a doctor and all, and I know you saw her at least once."

"Yeah, I knew," Me'ran says. She's relieved that Yuusuke saved her again. "Did you know? Did Raizen?"

"Nope, dear ol' Dad called her "he", too, so I figure unless he was just being nice, he had no idea." Yuusuke answers with a smile to her.

"Me'ran slipped up and told me while I was visiting her," Kurama mentions lightly, contributing to the distraction.

Hiei, on the other hand, seems perfectly satisfied with the not-so-cheerful topic of her health. "You didn't say anything about it after she snapped you into eight pieces," her red-eyed lover points out darkly.

Me'ran almost whines, but she thinks it would annoy him more if she showed no objection to discussing it. "I was still in my original one piece--I just had a few parts that were out of proper place. And of course I didn't tell you--I was distracted."

"She broke you," Hiei spits, trying to call out the being a smartass.

"Yeah, but if you're counting bone-wise, it was way more than eight--it was more like..." She pauses to count, making a show of it by holding out fingers and pretending to count on them.

"Please don't," Yuusuke interrupts, not being so discreet about changing the topic, this time. He doesn't want to remember that, obviously. Fine by me, I don't wanna remember, either. "Jeez, you're arguing like an old married couple. Why don't you go make out somewhere?" he adds, deciding to make a joke out of it.

"Because Mukuro will do her best to damage me if she finds me here at all," Me'ran teases brightly. "Much less attached to her-"

"Shut up," Hiei barks loudly and sharply, leaving no room for any sort of argument.

"Kay!" Me'ran feels an all-too-familiar youki signature, and she moves very quickly behind Kurama as Mukuro approaches. Hiei moves away from the other two boys, fleeing back to his long-nosed bitch of a master.

"I'm going," Me'ran tells the boys, hopping away, hoping that she can keep the red flare she knows is swelling inside her quiet until she gets well enough away. It's not that she'll stick out because of the amount of power, just the flares outside her body are bright scarlet, and she runs off reiki, rather than youki, and the feel of that is completely different.

* * *

Me'ran wanders around the inside of the stadium a little bit with her mask off so she can breathe something besides her own breath. Much better. It takes a while, but then she decides to go somewhere else. She's walking through a hall to outside when she suddenly feels a flare of Mukuro's youki, and then cold metal puts itself to her neck, and a large blade presses itself across the whole of her back. She's not sure who it is, so she freezes. He's very tall, whoever he is.

"Hello," his voice says. Me'ran looks up, but the blade digs farther into her neck. "Don't do that," it adds.

"Um. Alright. Who are you?" the human asks softly.

"I dare you to guess," he mocks. "Why would a complete stranger trap you with a knife to your neck?"

"Well, I am a human, and there are flesh-eaters that have tried this before, but I'm kind of famous, and there are a lot of people around here that would report someone attacking and eating a Healer. Are you Mukuro's?" Me'ran asks, having no better ideas.

"Very good. A wise little healer," the voice teases with a chuckle.

"Shigure-" Hiei's voice sputters weakly. He's somewhere to her left, and she turns to look, but the knife begins to dig, and she freezes once more. Mukuro is not too far from him, and is studying Me'ran, she figures. Me'ran feels the same aura from Mukuro as always, the want to murder and maim. Scary woman. The quiet rage that flooded her not even an hour ago has dissipated to fear.

"You're a fool," Mukuro says as she moves in front of the trapped human girl. She's smiling and has her arms crossed; she's relishing the power she has over the very helpless human girl right now. Me'ran stares at the red-haired bitch and smiles a little, the reflex of fear overtaking her. Mukuro scowls to see the terrified grin.

"She won't die. I suggest breaking something to put her into enough pain to get her to listen," Hiei says suddenly, trying to fake apathy.

"If pain taught me anything, Hiei, I wouldn't be here," Me'ran says with a scared grin. "Breaking shit does shit good; you know that, else I'd have stayed away from you, too, from the very beginning. Remember cutting my arm off?"

"Ah, well, it is always hard to teach the Undying anything through pain. However, I know something that will be interesting to learn for both of you..." And he leans down to Me'ran's ear and says in a soft, low voice, "I'm as hard to kill as you are, Little Healer." He moves the knife just a little, to bite at the flesh without actually cutting her. The scared grin drops completely, and Me'ran feels her heart pounding hard against her chest. She's half-sure she's going to have a heart attack. The blade against her back presses a little harder, and so does the knife under her chin. The length of it is against her jugular. He knows what he's doing. If he presses just a little harder, she's dead. "You know, it's funny how many of our kind wind up in the medical field," Shigure says. "I'm a surgeon. And if your anatomy is anything like any humanoid demon, then I know, and you know, what this blade right here can do."

He moves it a little over, to the side of her carotid. "And here."

Then he presses it to the back of her neck, right between the fifth and sixth vertebrae. He'll be able to slice the shit out of the disk and her spinal cord, with enough pressure, and it won't take much, considering the power difference between Me'ran and himself. "Here, too."

Her heartbeat is so strong that it's hurting her head.

"I love it when prey is panicked," a voice says. Me'ran thinks it's someone just watching.

Hiei is being very still. Very still. Me'ran remains frozen, as well. She's wondering if she's about to die or not. Shigure moves the knife back to the front of her neck, harmlessly over her windpipe, so as not to accidentally kill her. "Should I kill her?" he asks, sounding curious, as if it would be nothing. The sound scares her even more.

Mukuro looks at Me'ran and smiles, then looks at Hiei, who is still staring out at nothing. "Do what you want," she sighs, stepping back and crossing her arms. Hiei breathes again, visibly drawing in a long, relieved breath. Shigure lets go of the human girl and steps back. She looks back at Shigure, then at Hiei and Mukuro, and she waits a second before starting to move away, nearly running.

"Jealous fucking bitch," Me'ran growls as she leaves. A mistake. Some great impact meets her back and throws her forward and tumbling. She takes out several rows of demons on the way.

Fucking hate that fucking bitch.

* * *

Me'ran stalks off to the infirmary to set up a table for herself, and she fixes her mask and changes her robes, because that bastard's ring blade cut the back of them open.

The preliminaries are over quickly, minus Chu's fight with Natsume and Shura and Youmi's fight. Shura is carried up to the hospital while she chances to be there, and, out of the numbers of the other fully-capable doctors, only she has the balls to approach Youmi and his still-pissed-off-son.

"Get away from me, I don't need any damn help!" barks Shura stoically before adding an "owwww" when he slaps his scorched hand down too hard on the metal bed frame. Me'ran smiles warmly and leans down to his level.

"I know you don't need help, I'm not here to offer it. But if you let that burn on her face try to heal on its own, it'll turn green and fall off," she warns in the most friendly tones she can manage.

"What are you?" Youmi asks politely while she's patching up the self-inflicted singes on Shura's face. "You don't smell or feel like any demon I've been around, and there's no way a human..."

"You already know I am," Me'ran tells him. She likes talking to him 'cos she doesn't have to face him when she talks to him, and her voice is more easily controlled than her eyes are. "Why bother arguing?"

"You're working here. I don't suppose you knew the human Kurama, did you?" he asks. Curious, she guesses, or else he knew this already. He's a potential ruler of the whole of Demon World, she figures he might actually decide to hurt her or something or ask her to accidentally kill someone while healing them, or something, and he's trying to see how far he can push it by learning about her. This one's the smart one, so... Me'ran, rather unwisely, she admits to herself, decides to be honest.

"I was friends with Yuusuke and Kurama and Hiei, when they were in the Ningenkai," Me'ran answers tersely, putting something on her thumb to help Shura's singed cheeks. "This is going to sting, but you'll have to bear with me for long enough," she tells the child, before talking to his father again. "I was friends with Yuusuke a little less than the other two, but that's been fixed since I've been living in what is now Yuusuke's palace."

He nods, acknowledging the statement. She guesses whatever reason he was asking was satisfied by the answer. But he reaches out and brushes his fingertips against her face. Me'ran lets him, but she doesn't let him distract her from working on spreading the burn ointment between Shura's small fingers. He watches her for a minute, then, as she pulls away, she kneels and looks him in the face. "There, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

He looks at her and scowls, then crosses his arms and turns away from her. She giggles a little and pets his head. He snaps his teeth at her. "When children start out, they love their parents," she quotes sweetly. "When they get older, they judge them. And sometimes, they forgive them." Shura looks at Me'ran hard and narrows his eyes, then sticks his tongue out at her unhappily.

"He'll learn, he's new to the world," Youmi says softly. "What is this?" he adds, petting at the flower in her hair. It's the front most bloom--it's the lowest one, blooming just six inches off the base, where the roots have grown into her ear and the rest of her head. It's the most prominent, and the biggest bloom.

"It's a flower from the Corpse Vine," Me'ran tells him, "please don't pull too hard, that one's my favorite bloom." He draws his hand back and puts it in his lap. She pats his hand. "Good luck, though. You'll be facing Yuusuke eventually, so try to leave a winner."

"Hm," he answers.


	78. Midnight runins

_Midnight Run-ins_

Suzuka is the first to see her. Shisshy is next. Suzuka wasn't injured, but Shisshy had a few broken bones. Jin got his ass handed to him, and Touya did, too, but both of them are happy.

"I'm only sorry I won't get to face Urameshi again," Jin says. She forces a grin.

"Shit, he ain't gonna win. I'm just kind of surprised at how much good sportsmanship is among you powerful ones. It's kind of surprising--I've met more evil humans than I have demons. How come it's the weak ones that are all psychotic?" she asks, looking at another demon who was just mourning that he won't be able to raid human world on a regular basis.

"Because they've had it hard," Touya explains. He thanks her, then, and departs for open stadium.

* * *

Shigure croaks. This is significant because that means that he can't threaten to kill her anymore. This delights her to no end. Me'ran looks around for Kurama, but he isn't coming through. She waits for a while, but he still isn't on his way. She gets a little annoyed--she's not watching the Hiei versus Mukuro fight because he's not come through, yet. She doesn't wait long--she starts looking for him right after she realizes that he's not going to—he wants to watch the fight between them as well as she is, and he's willing to be a retard and not let himself be hospitalized just for it.

She wanders through the arena, completely lost, trying to sense him out. How hard could it be to find a human in a sea of demons? There are only two of them in the whole place! This is like an evil Where's Waldo.

Ah, there is it. She finds his ki, locks onto it, and starts running.

"Kurama, come on," Touya's pleading as she gets close. She trots up, and she feels the reiki flare when she sees what shape he's in. All five of them look at her when they feel that and she can see the relief on their faces, and Jin grins.

"Well if it isn't the sassy lass from Urameshi's palace! Good to see you, could you do something' about Kurama here? He's bein' a mite stubborn," he says quickly, pointing enthusiastically at Kurama, floating upside down over his head in a headstand on the air.

"I gathered as much," Me'ran sighs, moving closer to him. "He wants to watch Mukuro and Hiei's fight. Which ruins it for me, I was waiting for you, dammit, I've already missed most of it," she squeaks in matronly tones as she puts her hands on her hips. Then, without further ado, she leans over the fox demon and touches at his chest wound. He looks at her, and there's something sincerely apologetic in his face, but it's distant. She doesn't know why he's so sorry--normally he's not so pathetic when he lets himself get or stay hurt. She looks harder at his wound, the one over his belly. If he weren't once a demon, he'd be dead, now. Her mood has dropped to the somberness of his.

"Shuuichi," she mutters. "You can't do that. You're not one of my kind. You can die, and stubbornness will make this faster." She's trying to get his attention. He may decide to do this next time, and if she wasn't waiting on him, she'd never have noticed his absence.

"Me'ran," he says, looking up at her. "I have made a change." He smiles, now, and he pets at her face, trailing his fingers from the side of her face, down to her chin. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, I know," she mutters. She's trying to figure out why he's so sorry. She's also trying to heal the spot on his thoracic abdomen. It's being stubborn. Friggin' ugly wound, too.

"Be glad you haven't watched the fight," he adds. Then his head turns and he watches the screen. Something in his face looks more hurt than it did; even through the happiness he showed when he told her he'd made the change. He'd decided he was going to live as a human, but that's not what was bothering him, and neither was letting himself stay hurt.

After she finishes healing him, she stands up and watches the screen. It's clearly not a normal fight. It's an emotionally charged battle, and those two are both holding themselves back, neither going all out like one normally would in a fight. They're communicating, too, though if it's through telepathy or if they're just that so well attuned to each other that they can communicate through motions is uncertain. She chokes on her heart and her eyes water when she realizes... they're in love. They love each other, too, and... It hurts.

Me'ran stops watching right as Mukuro does something really interesting to the space around Hiei, something about breaking it... It's not important. It doesn't matter. How could it matter? Me'ran sits against the wall and tries not to weep. God, that sucks, doesn't it? Fucking boyfriend's in love with someone else. Kurama realizes that she's figured it out, and he leans toward her. All the other six demons look confusedly at her, but only Kurama speaks.

"Meruran, I'm so sorry," he says after a second.

"For what?" she creaks, smiling at him and petting his face the same way he pet hers a second ago. She giggles, then, to, to hide the sobs. "Don't leave yourself hurt like that anymore. I can heal you no matter what, and it's not like we don't have screens in there. And. I'm going back to the ward."

With that, she gets to her feet and starts running to report back to the infirmary.

* * *

Hiei loses, to no surprise. Me'ran's been waiting for him. Mukuro carries him in and puts him on a bed, and she's hiding. Her robes are different, and she's got her mask up, but if Mukuro knows she's here, she'll take him away from her.

Watching the other medics around, they're afraid to approach Mukuro. In fact, she's even scared a few off on purpose.

So, naturally, Me'ran makes a bold move.

Me'ran covers the blue eye, and she fixes the wrapping around her head to hold and hide her hair. She goes to Hiei's side, away from Mukuro, and starts taking care of the few marks he's got. Mukuro glares hard at the human girl, but she doesn't let herself back away more than just a couple of steps, making sure that she still looks nervous.

"You're being awful careful," she says suspiciously. Me'ran bows very low, then picks up her voice's pitch and softens it.

"I'm not used to this job, Lady. I'm trying to be careful. They sent me over," Me'ran says, pointing at a crowd of people watching her in horror.

"Expendable?" she teases coldly. Her voice is getting dangerous, and Me'ran can feel the youki building up.

"I don't like to think so, but I suppose I am," she nearly whispers, starting to work a little more quickly, as a part of the show of fear. Me'ran brushes her thumb over one of Hiei's scratches, and he twitches a little in his sleep. It's right over one of the bite scars from that night with the Dokuja. She freezes, staring at the wound, but then Mukuro gives her a dirty look, and she bows and steps away.

* * *

Yuusuke comes through, too, but he goes up a floor—his ass was handed to him pretty hard core. Not just kicked, but removed and placed into his hands. Me'ran follows him up, then goes in and checks on him, but he's already got two nurses and a doctor on him, so she goes back out, satisfied that he's not gonna stay sleeping for too much longer than it takes to recover. That's all she wants out of him, his survival, so she'll have a place to return after this is over. She already knows she won't be able to be with Hiei.

Back into the main ward, Mukuro is waiting for Hiei to wake up. She won't have to fight again, today--the lowest brackets are fighting, today. Tomorrow, the next ones up, and then the next ones the day after that. This is going to take a while. But she seems restless, here, and Me'ran can tell that the Bionic Whorebitch doesn't like being surrounded by people.

He sits up. The sudden motion starts Mukuro, and she sits upright and turns to him and smiles. He doesn't return the gesture, but Me'ran can see something in him change when he looks at her. She has to try to stop the pain in her heart from bringing tears to her eyes when she sees this. "How long was I out?" he asks Mukuro.

She shrugs in response. "Few hours. I have to go breathe. Do you want to stay here, or go back to the stadium?" The affection in her voice is almost sickening, though normally would be undetected. Me'ran's half-sure she's imagining it. She stays quiet and out of the way--in fact, she sits against a table to keep herself out of view.

"I'll go," he says. He starts to get out of the bed, but Me'ran hears him fall back against the bed again. "Never mind," he sighs. "I'll watch from in here."

Mukuro leaves. Several nurses make their way to Hiei to help pick him back up onto the bed properly (as he had gotten his legs half off and had tilted to one side and is nearly falling off again) but he fights them all off. Me'ran helps bat them away and lifts him easily back onto the bed. At first, he pushes her away, and then he realizes who she is, and he stops for the surprise. His jaw falls slack, but then he recovers. "I knew I smelled you in my sleep. You're such an idiot! I can't believe she didn't recognize you in that idiotic costume. Why the hell did you seek me out?" he barks angrily. "And then earlier, when you--Why did you look for me when you knew I was with her?!"

"I didn't. I was just breathing, then. You were closer than I knew. And this time was because you needed healing and Mukuro is a very frightening woman." Me'ran lets the wrappings off her head, and she looks down at him and smiles.

"I was worried she'd killed you," he sighs eventually. "For months, I was afraid she'd killed you, until a few spies in his land told us of you. Before, when she sent you away initially." The anger in his face has faded, and he looks relieved, if not pained, now at her presence.

"Was it good stuff or bad?" she asks with a smile, happy to talk with him again at all. She doesn't care what anyone said about her.

"I was impressed with the reputation, but Mukuro was displeased. She was mad at you for surviving and even angrier at your thriving. She almost took it out on Takani, before I reminded her that I dragged in his unconscious body."

Me'ran continues to smile, then touches at the scars on his cheeks, half-wanting to know what they were, and half-wanting to just touch him again. They're hard to see, but Me'ran sees them clearly. He brushes her hand away, but she remains undaunted, not going to let his usual stubbornness keep her away. But even so, she asks, before she makes any more contact. "I know this is going to ruin the moment, but I think I need to ask... May I...?"

He nods almost imperceptibly, and Me'ran leans closer to him and kisses his lips gently, and she hugs him for an instant, just long enough to take in his scent. "I've missed you," she whispers, not trusting her voice. She goes back to smiling, even through the want to weep. Even through the relief, the fear of what could have become of the two of them comes rushing back, and the feelings are just a little much more than she can handle in her weakened state.

"You've got new scars," he says, suddenly. He's staring at her face, studying it. "Mukuro gave you those," he adds, pointing at a spot on her eyebrow where the little hairs are interrupted. It was where she'd broken her brow and a piece of bone had gone through. She hadn't noticed that until the little white scar appeared under the hair and forced it out.

"I like them. I recovered well," Me'ran says easily. "Yuusuke's healers dealt well with what injury I had suffered, thank god not much damage was dealt."

"Mm," he agrees, still studying the purple eye. Nothing is said between the two of them for a minute or so, until after Me'ran finally kisses him again. "She took away my purpose," he finally says. "She made serving her my new reason to live." He looks mournful, and he leans forward to touch his mouth to her forehead, not a kiss, but a mere brush of the lips, much in the way you check for fevers, and his hand brushes over her face, and the flower. He looks at the Corpse Vine's flower and he smirks and gives a slight laugh. "The hell is that?"

She fixes her mask as Mukuro's youki comes back, not able to answer his question. "She's coming back. Don't tell her anything," Me'ran requests quietly, not that she has to. She just doesn't want him to say a damn thing.

"She'll recognize you," he warns. "Stay back, this time."

"She never spent nearly the time you did admiring my eyes. One's not even the right color. But there's one last thing--Do you return her feelings?" Me'ran knows he does, but she just wants a confirmation.

He doesn't get a chance to answer. He just stays stunned until Mukuro comes back. Me'ran twitches to and squeaks and runs, hoping he'll take the hint and put on his end of the show. Hiei puts on a threatening face and flares out his youki, as if he was scaring her off.

"What was that about?" Mukuro asks with an amused smile. She doesn't see through it. Good.

"Fool of a nurse trying to check on me," he barks irritably-sounding. "You didn't hurt me--I just wore myself out when I used the dragon," he adds defensively.

Mukuro looks a little more amused.

After all these fights, the lowest brackets are done, the fights are over, and she stays swamped, so she doesn't get another opportunity to help Hiei out.

* * *

At night, Me'ran winds up curled up on a bed in a room made for all the doctors and nurses. Several demons retreat to rooms in the stadiums, the ones that paid for them or killed people who paid for them.

About half the night through, she wakes up, though, and she gets up and goes outside. It's dark, and the stadium is pitch black, so she winds up feeling her way down halls until she gets to the big part and she gets to the railing.

There's someone else out here, but Me'ran ignores them, and she sits on the railing and stares at the sky.

"You shouldn't be out here," Hiei finally says. "If she wakes up and I'm not there, she'll hunt me down, and she'll find you."

Me'ran's surprised that it's him, and even more surprised that she didn't know it. She looks at him, concerned for herself, but she doesn't see the reflection of the light off his eyes, so she can't find his face, really. But she smiles anyway. "I didn't find you on purpose. Did you become one of my kind, too? We supposedly attract each other."

He doesn't grace the joke with even a sarcastic laugh, but she moves over to him anyway. She slides along the railing on her butt and and touches at his hair, being slow and gentle at first, before going at his scalp the way she knows he likes.

"Damn you," he says with something of a weak chuckle. She thinks he might be smiling, but Hiei's smiles were barely what one could call a smile, and the only reason Me'ran knows what they are is because she has managed to summon them out of him now and again, and it was the only thing they could be.

"I am damned as it is, you don't have to," Me'ran says quietly, leaning down to kiss him. He kisses back.

"The flower in your hair matches your eyes. Both of them, oddly enough," he says, looking at it, suddenly, touching at it with his sword-calloused fingers. Me'ran leans down to let him touch at it. "What's that in there for, anyway?"

"Ponytail holder and it's real useful. The thorns are antidotes for most potions, the vine is... I forget. I remember bits at a time, and I've got it written down somewhere," she answers vaguely. Truth is, she remembers all its uses, but she doesn't want to list them and ruin the romantic moment with Hiei with dumb factoids. He smiles again, sort of, just a little upturn of the corners of his lips, and very short-lived. "I love you," she tells him.

"Mm," he answers. It means, "I love you, too" possibly with a "dumb human" attached to it, but Me'ran knows this, so she doesn't ask him to elaborate.

"Do you love her?" Me'ran asks him, now. She hates to ruin it, but it's burning her up to not know for sure, so she has to ask. He stays quiet. The silence is the only answer she really expected, other than a simple "no", but that would have been a lie, and it would have been to defend his pride. But she doesn't react strongly. All she allows herself is a simple, "Oh." Me'ran moves away from him and leans against the railing, and it stays quiet. He touches his fingertips to her shoulder, and she's so startled that she nearly swings at him. She stops herself, and she looks down at him, smiling as well as she can, even though she wants nothing more than to hug him so tightly that it hurts. "I don't blame you," Me'ran tells him after she gets her words back. "Your loss of me probably killed you as much as my loss of you killed me, and she was there, and she took care of you, and she loved you so much... Loves, really, but. I know you do. It's okay."

He seems miffed, somehow. Angry, unhappy that she's forgiven him. "You're not angry? Are you that pathetic that you're going to weep, rather than storm off?" he snaps. "And I gave you credit, human, for not being what you are."

"You can't help it, and neither can I, Hiei. What good would it do me? I can't kill her to get rid of her, and even if I could, I couldn't put you through that much pain. I'm angry, don't get me wrong. I hate that b--Forgive me, Hiei--I fuckin' hate that psychotic bionic bitch with all my soul, but I can't do anything about it, nor would I if I could. She mangled me and she stole you from me, and I'm not going to forgive her that, because she did it on purpose. I'm sad, too, because I'm losing you, and I love you more than I have ever loved anything, and I want you, but you are officially another woman's. But you're healthy. You're alive. You do show slight disease, thinness and exhaustion, but you're alive and well, and I have her to thank for that, and. I love you. So does she. And. I can't be mad at you for loving her back any more than I can be happy with you for loving me. It's not a choice, it just happens." He scowls. Me'ran kisses his face again, and runs her hand through his hair. It's less coarse since she last did that. Mukuro must be making him take care of himself, or doing it for him.

Me'ran feels a small stirring from the doorway, and she gets up and runs up a wall to the level above his and pulls herself onto it and behind it, and she hides her reiki. Hiei looks at the entranceway, not even sparing her a glance. "Hiei?" Mukuro asks. "Who was here?"

"I don't know. I scared him," Hiei lies.

"Oh." And she knows it was a lie, but she doesn't keep talking. Me'ran, however, takes this as a cue to get the fuck out of there. Plus, she can't stand to watch them.


	79. Next Bout

_Next Bout_

Hiei stays in Mukuro's box seat after he recovers enough to do so, which makes it harder to stalk him. Me'ran does, however, take advantage of Mukuro's fight; one of the few times he leaves the box, to sneak up to him.

"Hiei?"

"Don't," he snaps, not looking at her.

"Well, even if you've found a substitute, I still love you," Me'ran responds, sneaking her arms around his neck.

"Ow," he spits, grabbing her arm and pushing her away. "Keep off me."

"Sorry, did the thorns get you?" Me'ran pushes her hair back behind her. No answer. "Alright."

She sits next to him anyway, and she watches Mukuro's fight with some guy on the big screen. Hiei's whole body winces when Mukuro takes a blow, and even Me'ran hears herself go "oooh" when she hits the shit out of her opponent. A giggle comes out of her before she's aware of it.

Hiei turns his gaze to Me'ran throughout the course of this. "You are amazing," he finally says.

"Amazing?" she asks. She dares not believe the compliment. And she's right in doing so.

"Amazingly foolish. I can't believe you can laugh at the woman that hates you enough to kill the people that know your name, much less say it," he spits angrily, glaring at her. She smiles, not letting herself be daunted by his usual insults. She pets his face with her claws, running them down his cheek. He draws back, looking annoyed. She drops her hand back to her lap. They both know he wants it, but his pride isn't letting him take it, and his feelings are conflicted, right now. He's caught between the two women in his life.

"I'm a simple-minded creature," Me'ran lies. "When she gives a good hit, I'm just as likely to laugh as the next person." Even though she's trying to lift her own spirits, as well as his, she's becoming more and more depressed.

"You're not even taking a damage report," he complains, turning back to the screen.

"There are twenty other nurses and doctors that can take care of him, and--" He cuts Me'ran off when he leans over, seizing her wrist and holding it wide, and his other hand weaves its way under and into her hair to hold her head, and he pulls her head towards him to kiss her.

She kisses back. For a few seconds, they're the people they were a year ago, caring about nothing but the other one and little problems that they shared, interrupting sentences to get the other one to shut up and just be loved for a second.

They watch the fight together, He twitches slightly, now and again, wincing when she takes a blow, or twitching a little by reflex, almost doing what he would have done in his or her position. Me'ran catches herself doing the same thing, and she roars just as loudly when Mukuro finally stands over her fallen foe and puts her foot on his throat to finish him off.

"Now, why couldn't she have done that to me?" Me'ran demands. "It wouldn't have hurt so badly!"

Hiei laughs at Me'ran, and then pushes her off the seat, out onto the stairs before standing himself. "Go put your little mask on and play doctor before she catches you near me. It's bad enough I'm going to smell like you--just be glad she hasn't got a keen nose."

Me'ran watches him as she stands up and brushes her lips to his temple as he moves past her. He starts to swing, but she catches his hand and musses his hair before she starts to run.

* * *

Hiei's much more approachable the next day. He's watching Mukuro's fight, as expected, but he is more easily distracted, and he looks up at her before she even gets close. 

"She's not doing as well, today," Me'ran states when he sees her.

"Her youki's failing her," he agrees calmly, returning his gaze to the screens.

"How come?" she inquires. Hiei doesn't say anything, and she smiles a bit. "Youki relies on emotions, too, huh?"

"Cause and effect vary, but yes," he responds after a second.

"She's more relaxed because of you, yes?" she continues. Me'ran doesn't really care, but Hiei's concerned, right now, and she wants to settle that for him, so she distracts him.

"Hn. She doesn't know you're still talking to me. She thinks you've been scared off," Hiei mumbles, still staring hard at the screen. Me'ran can see that his whole body is tense. It's not as bad as it was a second ago, but his hands are gripping each other so tight his knuckles are blanching. Me'ran can't help but wonder what the hell's wrong with him. "Are you okay?"

He looks at the human and scowls. "You shouldn't be here."

"Shigure's dead, what the hell do I have to worry about?"

"There is something wrong in your head," Hiei answers whinily.

"The hells are you doing in my head?"

"The hells are you doing over here?" he insists, taking hold of her wrist. She _feels_ him digging in her head, now, he's being so enthusiastic about it, but she tries to force him back.

"Stay the hell out of my head," Me'ran answers. "Get out, Hiei!" she adds when he stops listening.

"Hn," he answers, but he doesn't leave her mind. He stops searching so hard, leaving almost no sign that he was in there, but she knows he's still digging. She immediately summons up the memory of his own naked body, then a series of others, the memory of her own body being eaten by bullets, the memory of putting someone's heart together (She accompanies this one with the memory of the feeling of the organ in her hands) and Bungo's brain's dissection, the memory of the pain of trying to move after Mukuro hit her that first time. After even the first one, he clutches at his head, pressing one palm to his Jagan and the other to his temple. "AAGH!" he cries, first, before staring accusingly at her. "You did that on purpose!"

"Yes, I did, now stay the hell out of my head!" Me'ran laughs, crossing her arms. He pushes her, and she punches him in the arm, and her hand hurts. She wraps her hand in her shirt and leans over it, pressing it to her belly as she curls over it. "Owww."

"Idiot," he growls quietly, smirking self-righteously.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," she whines, shaking her hand. He punches her shoulder. It hurts like hell, and she knows it's going to bruise.

"OW!" she shouts at him. He laughs again.

"A year in demon world, and you're still this easily damaged? You're going to have trouble surviving when the idiot Detective goes home," he mocks, returning his attention to the screens.

"Nah. See the big red guy?" she asks, pointing Enki out. He follows her finger. Enki's gigantic red body is currently cheering enthusiastically with Koku on his shoulder, who is equally enthusiastically drinking and screaming "KILL HIM!"

"Mm," Hiei confirms.

"He's one of Raizen's old buddies. Him, and his wife likes me, too, 'cos I gave her a hangover cure."

Hiei smirks. "I always said that friends are a crutch for the weak."

"They're not friends. They're employers, and my pay is protection. It's my salary," Me'ran mutters defensively.

He laughs again. "You're such a damn human."

"And you're a damn stubborn male."

Mukuro wins this fight, and Me'ran kisses Hiei real quick and goes back to her headquarters. Apparently, a fight broke out in the stands, and she winds up taking care of a few of them. Mukuro drops by, but Me'ran avoids the hell out of her. Kurama's fighting, now, but he's going to lose--his fight with Shigure drained him, and he's tired. She's not sure who's going to win the tournament, but the less powerful ones are slowly but surely losing their hold. So far, three of Raizen's old friends have lost, and Kirin isn't looking too good. Mukuro's still okay, but she's lost some of her old strength. The air around the whole of the arena is growing more and more tense. Today, there were sixteen fights. Tomorrow, people are going to have to fight twice. Eight, then four. Then two, the next day, and there will be two days after the semi-finals before the finals. Thel contestants will get a day to recover. She recognizes most of the current still-in fighters, and more of the losers--Youmi lost, today, and Koku did, too. That chick with the big boobs (Her name is Natsume or something.) that came to Raizen's funeral and carried in her brother, Kujo, is still in, but she got pretty damaged, today--she'll have a rough time tomorrow. Her brother was damaged, too--they fought each other. Enki's still in, and so's Soketsu, the guy with the hat and weird lizard tail...

Yeah. So.

That is not nearly enough time to spend with him, Me'ran whines to herself in her mind before she puts herself to bed out in the stands under the stars.

* * *

"KICK HER ASS!" Me'ran catches herself screaming, startling Hiei. She sits down in the seat again and grins dumbly. 

"You know, if all humans were like you, we could invade human world and no one would notice," Hiei says coldly, turning his head to face away from her in a show of disdain.

"Yep!" Me'ran says with a grin, petting his head, completely discarding his little show. "No wonder I fit right in here!" She leans back, watching Mukuro fight.

She's caught off guard when Hiei suddenly grabs her arm and pulls her up some stairs to a room that is empty, and he pushes her to the wall and kisses her hard on the mouth. She's caught between crying out in pain, surprise, and joy. "Ihhai, Hhiaah!"(1)

"Shut up," he says, pulling his head back long enough to grin, and he pushes her to the wall again. The thorns in her hair stab her in the back.

"Ow," she reports. He kisses her again, then pulls her down to his level by the collar of her robes. "What the hell is that for?" she asks between the rough motions of his hands and lips. His response is his form of a smile. Then he puts her on the floor and leans down over her.

"Because," he finally says, apparently unable to come up with something to say. Her hair and its vine is over the floor and the flowers suddenly bloom bigger than they ever did before.

"Whoo, mystic," she giggles, rolling over on top of him and straddling his waist. He rolls back on top forcefully, throwing her to the ground. She's dazed by the sudden force. Used to, she would start out on top and he would roll them over when it came time for the real fucking, but this time, he's being pretty insistent. She questions him with her facial expression.

"If we're interrupted, I should be the one running. You can play rape victim," he explains shortly, sitting back on her hips.

"Who said I'd have to play?" Me'ran teases, smiling up at him, leaning on her elbows.

"You can't rape the willing," he replies, pulling her kimono open and putting her back onto the floor.

The two of them move over the floor, careful to leave as many clothes as possible on, just in case someone runs in, and she tries to keep him on top. He keeps his hands busy as well as his hips and mouth, and her hands travel over him, but he seems to just want her--she doesn't have to do anything to help out. He keeps putting her hands down.

So much time he spends pushing her hips to the floor, pounding between her legs. It hurts at first (first time in a long time), but it feels terrific, and the pleasure is almost blinding. Her eyes close, and she rolls her head back on the floor. His hands travel down her sides, over her breasts, over her hips, down her thighs, and she can hardly stand it--it's been so long, and to feel him again is wonderful. The ecstasy of orgasm attacks her over and over again, for so long that she doesn't think she can stand it anymore. He pulls himself out every time he gets even close, and he starts using his mouth, and then he starts using his member again, after it gets enough of a break, until, finally, he pulls out a final time and rolls onto the floor, and the two of them heave for breath.

"That. Was excellent," she says softly, falling back onto the floor and trying to breathe. Her whole body feels weak and drained, but her heart's going a thousand miles an hour, and there's a grin on her face, and a flush in her cheeks. Her blue eye itches, but that's unrelated, though she does rub it for a while, using that as an excuse to sit and be still for a second and recover. Her hips ache, now.

"Hn," he agrees. "I missed you," he adds, getting up and going to a different part of the room. He cleans himself up a little, straightens the clothes he has to fix and pulls on the ones he took off ((belt and shirt)), and he shakes his hair back up. He doesn't leave her yet, though. She gets up, and nearly falls down, because her legs are so weak, and then she takes a few steps and she really does fall down, and she catches herself and goes over and finds a towel that Hiei didn't use, and she cleans herself up as well, before she looks over at him.

"Am I that hot?" Me'ran asks with a mocking smile as she starts pulling her kimono back into place.

"You have your moments," he admits after a second.

"Like when I'm not reminding you of a human so much you want to kill me?"

"Hn." It means "yeah". Then he talks again, this time making a joke. "That Kimono's not very flattering. You almost look like a man in a dress."

"Mm," Me'ran says, chuckling at the joke and not being able to summon the energy to laugh. She fixes her obi and looks over herself in a mirror. Her hair is a little mussed, and the mask she had left around her neck is askew, but she fixes it and wraps her vine carefully around again, and she smiles a little. Then something in her brain makes a soft sound, and she opens her mouth and hears herself say "Run" before she's even aware of talking. Hiei flees, though she's not sure to where, and there's no way for her to run anywhere, so she turns her back and starts to pretend to clean up the mess that "someone else" made.

"Who's in here?" demands a female voice that she doesn't register. She keeps cleaning, careful not to jump.

"Me," Me'ran says quietly, looking over her shoulder at the door. "Ah--Mukuro!" Me'ran is almost ashamed of the terror the red-haired demoness instills in her, but the shame doesn't keep Me'ran's heart from jumping into her throat, nor her body from freezing. Even her voice gives out and the cry of fear is reduced to a terrified whisper.

"The hells are you doing?" someone demands from behind her. The voice is Kani's, Me'ran's thinking. She's never heard him shout before, so she's not sure if it really is him or not.

"What?" Me'ran asks, voice slowly returning, recovering from the shock and fear of Mukuro's sudden appearance.

"Your power's been kind of out of control," Mukuro informs the human girl coldly. "You startled us. With power like that, you could have been a contestant in the tournament."

"What happened to you?" the voice behind her asks. It is Kani. Me'ran's guessing he's her main servant, now. Good for him. But. Why would he ask...?

"Huh?" Me'ran demands, looking in a mirror. Her face is flushed, and her human eye is a little puffy. It was getting that way because of something on the floor, probably mildew or dust, which she happens to be allergic to. She had noticed, but she was feelin' pretty good, so she ignored it, and now it's begun to irritate her. She rubs it again.

Mukuro suddenly grins. It's the most evil grin she's seen on anyone since Raizen found Terashira's arm. "Crying fit?" she teases, suddenly, moving into the room towards Me'ran. She's only a few inches taller than the human girl, but this doesn't stop the demoness from looming over even Me'ran's powerful presence and dwarfing her. It's all Me'ran can do to not duck.

"Shut up," Me'ran finally spits, voice hissing in fear. Kani moves into the room, too, moving closer to Mukuro, but also freeing up the door. Mukuro continues to loom over her competition and smirks a little when she sees Me'ran eyeing the door, but then Me'ran looks at Kani and forces her face to twist. Keep the act up, and don't overdo it. "You," Me'ran whispers. "I remember you. You're the bastard that tried to kill me after Mukuro nearly killed me!" Ah, what an act. Goddammit. Mukuro grins even wider, now.

"Kill her, now, Takani," she orders quickly and quietly.

He doesn't show her his displeasure at this command, but instead, he throws the human to the wall. He's gotten stronger, Me'ran observes pointlessly. His hand seizes her shoulder, but this time, her hair is over her shoulder and the thorns of the Corpse Vine stab his hand, making him step back, clutching his wrist and looking at the holes. She waits until after he draws a knife from his belt and and he swings it upwards to her ribs. She catches his arm.

"I'm only pretending," he whispers. "It won't hurt if you just let me try."

"She'll kill you if she sees me alive," Me'ran hisses back, too quietly for her to hear, she hopes.

He keeps up the effort to stab her. Even if he does manage to hit her, she'll survive. She's still holding him back for the moment, trying to come up with something to do. She already has to use her reiki and her surprisingly strong physical power, and he's not even using his youki. Then he fixes that little "problem" with a surge of bluish green youki and presses her hard against the wall, scratching her with the knife on her chest. She uses the closeness to her advantage and puts her hand over his brow and presses three pressure points. All his muscles go slack and he falls forward into her. She catches him and holds him up.

"I forgot you're a damn doctor," Mukuro spits hatedly. Me'ran pulls Kani back into her arms easily, cradling his limp shape against her.

"What's it matter if I'm alive, he's with you," Me'ran growls back. Why won't you leave me alone?! her mind demands.

"You're a fool," she responds. Her voice has gone cold, and she looks even more enraged than before. Her whole body's gone stiff, her fists are clenching, and her lips are twisted into a scowl.

"How's that?" Me'ran's gotten pissed off enough to surpass the fear, and her lips turn up into a sneer and she glares at the woman.

"You were there first. The chemical dependence is on you. Or haven't you noticed he's gotten thinner? He still hasn't gotten over you," she answers. Her voice goes from the rage to a near-sob in between the words "there" and "first". She sounds pissed, still, but she sounds even more pathetic.

Me'ran holds still for a second, then sighs. "And you still hold him, so I can't do anything about it." As a peace offering, Me'ran moves forward a bit and lays her servant's unconscious body at her feet, then starts to rise, but Mukuro throws her youki at her. Me'ran's feet clear the ground and she hits the wall hard, but not nearly as hard as last time, and she slides to the floor and flops to her side.

* * *

"Ow." 

When Me'ran wakes up, Mukuro's gone. She must have been knocked out. Hiei's not here, either. Me'ran gets up, slowly, and takes enough time to discover how much her leg and back hurt and she goes back to the nurse's headquarters and takes some headache medicine and hides away as much as she can.

* * *

(1)As if I have to tell you—"Itai, Hiei!" which means "Ouch, Hiei!". 


	80. Done and Gone

I am aware of the fact that this is a very long story. I'm sorry, I just didn't know when to stop, and most of that stuff in the middle wasn't there when I finished it the first time. You see, this is the seventh rewrite. I have no common sense. You've got about ten more chapters to go. So just bear with me. It's got a good ending.

-R.F.

* * *

_Done and Gone_

Last fight. The whole of demon world is sitting glued to the gigantic screens, waiting to see who's going to win. Enki versus Mukuro. Mukuro suffered an intense ki drop when she found Me'ran "weeping", and this is clearly leading to her downfall. That, and the fact that Enki is not one to fight. Ever. Under any circumstances. He's making Mukuro look like the bitch she is.

Not that she doesn't put up a decent fight, because she does, but she's not exactly in prime fighting condition.

Me'ran and Hiei are both sitting next to each other, both clutching at the other's hands. Both of them have nail marks where the others' claws have sunk in, making the only reason Hiei isn't bleeding Me'ran's healing powers. Me'ran already knows Mukuro's not going to win. She doesn't want global power. She wants Hiei, and she wants to stay at home in her dumb palace, on the bugs, and pretend she's a normal demon woman, rather than bothering with masking who she is, and her painful history (Hiei told her), proving to everyone almost as much as herself that she's not weak, pathetic, or easily overpowered.

"If she loses, and she takes you home with her, the odds are slim that we'll ever see each other again," Me'ran says during a lapse in activity in the fight. "Same goes for if she wins."

"I know."

"Are we just going to live with that?"

"Why not?"

"Because she slipped up and told me yesterday that you got sick after you lost me, too. And I know you could see it on me."

He's silent. Mukuro delivers a blow to Enki's head that knocks him stumbling. He recovers quickly with a roar and blows her backwards.

"If it comes down to it, we can run together," he finally says. "She has cronies, but you have friends. Debt and love carry farther than admiration and fear. Plus, a dead you is far more dangerous than a living Mukuro."

"How's that?"

"My life is more likely ended by someone besides Mukuro, and you can heal me where she can't.

Me'ran smiles and kisses his face, then turns to watch the fight.

"All over this continent, you have saved lives. I can go into hiding. You can set up shop somewhere in a small town, heal there, make friends--they'll protect you."

"You don't have to stay with me. I can't die. I wilt, but I can't die. I'll only be alive for a hundred or so more years anyway."

"The Makai will elongate your life at least a little. As skilled as you are, you may figure out how to stop aging. I've got at least a thousand years ahead of me. Mukuro's been in power for five hundred, I don't know how much longer she's got."

"Are you trying to figure out who would be less emotionally damaging to be with?" Me'ran asks him, keeping her tones as objective as she can and doing remarkably well.

"Yes," he answers. He doesn't bother sparing her feelings. So she doesn't bother sparing his in her answer.

"Pick her," Me'ran tells him then, leaning back and watching as Mukuro starts cutting at space-time again. Enki's having none of it, though, and he's using his own powers to keep hers from affecting much.

"That's bad, too," Hiei grumbles. His face is so distressed right now, tense with its thought and worry, it hurts Me'ran to just see what she's done to him, her and Mukuro both. She knows now how Kurama felt when it was still a toss-up between him and Hiei.

"Why?" she asks politely.

"Chemical dependency. Isn't that what she called it?" he asks, turning to look at the human girl. She looks back at him and she smiles a little.

"When someone falls in love, it's not just a trick of the mind, but a release and mix of hormones equivalent to eating fifty pounds of chocolate," she explains cooly. Then she continues to babble, in an attempt to distract both of them, and to make herself feel better."If you're a particularly monogamous creature, you secrete a hormone that creatures with polygamous tendencies do not, and your body will become attached to the person themselves. If you think about sex, you remember anyone appealing in that sense, and if you remember something about the one you love in a loving way, then you remember them and them alone."

"Where do you learn this shit?" he asks, narrowing his eyes and crossing his arms.

"That, I learned on TV at home before I ever even left America," Me'ran tells him with a weak laugh.

"Why did you bother learning that? You'd never been in love," he points out, returning his gaze to the fight. She runs her fingers behind his ear and into his hair, and she kisses the side of his head, at his temple, before she starts watching the fight, too.

"It was fun to watch. From what I can tell, humans, animals, and demons are all pretty much the same. Some of us are a little different due to thought process and various brain activities, but mostly, we're all ruled by hormones and reflexes," she mumbles.

He nods slowly. "What does this have to do with me?"

"Nothing. It makes me feel good to babble. You have a choice to make. I won't sway this decision. She won't let you make the choice," Me'ran continues mumbling.

"This is another reason I don't like her. I don't do well with cages."

Me'ran nods and gets up. Mukuro is lying on her back in the dirt, and has just conceded. Few more hours of ceremony and Enki is going to be ruler of the Makai. Cool. Goddammit.

However, as much as she wants it to be over, she has a job to do--and Mukuro scared off all the nurses last time she was in there when she threw one into the wall.

Me'ran meets her in the hall to the infirmary. She's on a stretcher, staring straight up at the ceiling, with a very small smile on her face, though when she moves, she winces. Something in her back was strained with Enki's last blow to her back, and her ankle is sprained, and so is her right wrist, along with the dislocation of her right shoulder.

Me'ran is, unsurprisingly, the only one with the balls to approach the powerful demoness, and she starts working quickly and methodically, getting Mukuro to roll over onto her side so Me'ran can heal her back and deciding to wrap up her left hand, which appears to have caught her while she was falling. Only she was probably moving pretty fast, and there were probably rocks or something that caught it and tore large pieces of flesh out of it.

While she's busy, Me'ran feels Mukuro staring hard at her. "I felt that same reiki yesterday. It's you," she says. "That fucking eye. All this time, I never fucking." She stops babbling and sits up taller and pulls her hand away from the human quickly and stares hard into her purple eye. "Take off that mask."

Me'ran holds up one finger and pulls her hand gently back to her to finish wrapping it before she pulls the mask off over the top of her head. This, however, doesn't stop Me'ran from doing her job--she simply moves to her shoulder and puts it back into proper place. She can only hope that she's not about to get her ass kicked, but the concept doesn't scare her as much as it used to.

"You're a fucking idiot. Hiei said you were foolish, especially when it came to other peoples' pain, but I had no idea he meant to this extent. Not only did you approach him again, three times, in my presence, but you even come to find me to take out revenge," she cries as she pulls away from Me'ran again. This time, Me'ran is slightly annoyed with Mukuro's reaction to her presence, and she sighs, then reaches up to her head, a little cut on it having caught Me'ran's attention.

It takes a bit to get up the balls, now, but she retrieves her calm that seems to have retreated to somewhere in the depths of her lower intestines and she speaks to the woman. "If I was going to take revenge, I would have it by now. I have a neurotoxin in my robes that can blind, deafen, and immobilize any creature in existence, and all I have to do is break the vial and open the skin enough to let just a little of it in--I wouldn't even need to break the sleeve. I have three chemicals on me that can mix to a poison so deadly they'd kill you before you knew it. I know enough pressure points that if I wanted to, I could just hold your hand just right, press down with three fingers, and have you dead on the bed before you knew what I was doing. While I was wrapping your wrist, I could have just put a little bit of this-" and Me'ran pulls a small vial out of a pocket, then slips it back in easily--"under the bandage on a needle, have you dead in three days, and no one would have any idea what the hell happened to you. I'm not interested in revenge. They wouldn't heal you, so I'm doing my job and I'm healing you."

Mukuro's face has gone almost completely blank, and her mouth is sagging open. She looks very confused and unsure, suddenly. Doesn't look good on her. She also looks slightly afraid, as if she'd been previously unaware of what Me'ran could possibly have done, with so little power.

Suddenly, her resolve comes back. "He's mine. You can't have him," she finally says, taking a defensive stance. Me'ran ignores this and doesn't answer. Instead, she kneels next to her sprained ankle and touches at it with her fingertips glowing green again, but Mukuro pulls it away from her, not letting her touch it.

"He's his. And I can have him if he so chooses," Me'ran finally say in his defense. "You're no more his owner than I am."

"I'll kill you," she spits heatedly, moving off the bed and staring down at the insolent human brat, lifting one arm to her waist in preparation to strike. Me'ran rises to her feet and stands as tall as she can, facing the other woman boldly, not backing down. The people in the room, patients and doctors alike, flee the scene, or are watching from what they are hoping is a safe distance. The red-hued energies are warring, shards of Me'ran's are meeting the waves of Mukuro's violently, and they clash in between the two women.

"You can't kill me," Me'ran reminds her with a smile.

She doesn't hesitate in her response. "Then I'll kill him and watch you kill you, then. Without him, you'll wither until there's nothing left to go, and you'll use one of those oh-so-effective methods of death to end your own pain," she warns in the darkest, most threatening tones Me'ran's ever heard out of anyone. But somehow, the human isn't afraid. Not even her heartbeat betrays her, staying at a low, steady thrum.

"You're not that cold. You can't kill him," Me'ran spits back. Her hands have closed into fists, and her claws are drawing blood. Mukuro's mechanical arm is still bent at her waist, looking like it's prepared to hit the source of its master's ire all on its own.

"You don't know that I can't. I've grown accustomed to loss and pain. I can deal with a little more if it means not being betrayed." Her voice sounds almost pained at the thought, but the threatening tones remain. Me'ran is pissing Mukuro off. She's winning this little battle, the battle of wills and minds, simply because she's refusing to be intimidated. Mukuro, however, is trying to gain ground again. She's only lost a little, but it's enough. "I have no intention of letting Hiei choose you. Stay away from him," she finally adds. Me'ran doesn't waver. Mukuro finally gets sick of it and steps toward Me'ran, forcing the energies to clash even more, though her body itself starts moving into Me'ran's aura, cutting through it easily, even though her clothes are starting to move as if windblown, and the edges of the rough fabric are singed. Me'ran doesn't back away. Her fear finally takes hold, forcing her pulse up to a rate that almost makes her face flush, but she doesn't back down. She can practically feel the air and blood rushing through her body. Then, to meet the challenge, Me'ran steps up to Mukuro. This takes effort--the battling energies are putting up a fight about letting her through.

It's quiet while the women stare each other down, attempting to bring the other to back away, trading intimidating looks and forcing their ki harder at the other, until Hiei moves close to both of them, forcing his way between them, putting his back against Me'ran defensively.

"I like to think that I control me more than you do, Mukuro," he says, first. "I don't take orders."

Mukuro doesn't look at her miniature heir and remains focused on the human in front of her. "Would you risk her like that, Hiei?" she challenges. She hasn't even begun to back down, and she's still fully prepared to eliminate the competition, whether or not the prize is right in front of her. The people in the room have started to bustle, and a number of them flee. He moves back, giving her free way to hit his human lover. He's not protecting her. This would normally hurt Me'ran's feelings, but he's showing her that he is not going to be threatened by threats to her life.

"She is at no risk. She can't die," he reminds her.

Mukuro glares at him, then crosses her arms. "She's not coming to my palace." She looks at Me'ran, now, and points at her face with her wrapped up hand. "You are going back to Raizen's heir." Then back to Hiei, pointing at him, putting her finger right between his eyes in warning. "If you attempt to follow her, or get her to follow you, I'll have her killed. A match between her and any demon is more than perfectly uneven--she'll have no chance. If she survives, I'll have you killed in her stead, and I'll leave her broken body and your corpse to rot."

And at that, she gets up and half-limps away. Hiei looks at Me'ran, then at Mukuro, and he finally gives Me'ran a half-hearted nod. "If I let you go, now, we'll have the chance, later," she whispers. He nods in agreement, and he lets her kiss his face before he follows his new master at a brisk trot, not even looking over his shoulder.

The shards of scarlet reiki fade almost immediate after the demons leave Me'ran's sight. The strain of it all on her spreads to her body like ice water, spilling down from the top of her head to her toes, down to her feet, until she's so disabled that she hits her knees on the floor, sitting on her feet and heaving for breath. She was using her reiki to keep herself up like that, using her strength to stare her down. She's hurt by the second loss of her lover, and by the drain of her power facing the second most powerful demon in the whole Makai, and after all the work today...

I've got... to... go to... Enki, Me'ran decides, getting up and fairly running to find the big red demon to give her somewhere to hide and to offer her some protection from Scary Psychobitch.


	81. The Hermit

_The Hermit_

Enki's the new king. Me'ran asked him if she could serve under him, mostly as a lead researcher, looking into diseases and chemicals and cures. She stays in the Raizen castle, because Enki's set up shop there, for lack of a better place to rule. She thinks it's going to wind up the presidential estate or what have you. Doesn't matter--she wouldn't know if it was Enki or Kirin or Yuusuke or Mukuro (except that she's not dead) or Hiei or some bug demon or Sazuna.

Me'ran stays in her tower. Apparently, the most recent loss of Hiei has taken a heavier toll than last time, probably because of the finality of everything, and she has been having trouble sleeping and even more trouble standing to eat. Every now and again, someone will see her (not often) and ask her if she's okay, does she need something, would she like to talk, but she just shrugs them off and goes to do whatever she was doing or just made up to do.

* * *

"Me'ran-sama! Yuusuke's accidentally killed--" Jinta screams from the doorway.

"Yeah, yeah," Me'ran answers, dropping off the shelf she's sitting on and starting to run down to the stairs.

Once she gets outside, she spots a gathering of people, and she sets off at a run, and when she reaches them, she simply leaps up, kicking off one's back to another's shoulder and stepping smoothly over them until she lands carefully on the inside of the circle. She's seen the dead one before. His name's Daisuke, and he's also the one that got the hole punched in his chest and has suffered many other accidental misuses of Yuusuke's powers. There's a dent in his skull and his ribs are broken and one pierced his lung, judging by the way it's sticking out of his chest, and there's blood and pink bubbles all over his lifeless lips. Yuusuke's leaning close to him, looking nerve-wracked.

"Relax, Yuusuke. And step back, I don't think you'll want his blood on you when I clear that out of his lungs," Me'ran orders in her most authoritative voice.

"Oh--Meru, I didn't--" he starts babbling. He's never killed any of his friends before, and he was particularly close to Daisuke (because they were so close in age and personality, and he was always good for a fight), so he's kind of stressed, right now, and probably feeling more than a little guilty that he let his strength out of hand again.

"I know you didn't, Yuusuke, you never do, now sit back," Me'ran orders, pushing him onto his ass and touching her thumb to his forehead long enough to increase dopamine secretions enough to shut him up. He complies easily and watches her work on Daisuke. She puts his rib back into his chest and heals that, and she heals the dent in his skull and she puts her palm over his chest and pushes once, hard. It starts his heart and expels all the air (and blood) in his lungs. He starts breathing again, coughs for a second, then sits up and keeps coughing.

The crowd is relieved, and Me'ran climbs up over someone and crawls over even more shoulders and backs until she's outside the group and moves quickly away from them before the relief of Daisuke's close call fades and people start paying attention to the one that saved him.

"Me'ran!" Yuusuke calls, jumping over their heads to chase after the fleeing womanling.

"Yeah, no, leave me alone," she says quietly, starting to run, knowing it's useless. "I don't feel like-"

Yuusuke catches her arm and forces her to turn around by sheer strength. She's almost dizzy from the force he used, and her arm bruises under his thumb. She isn't faced with Yuusuke. Instead, Daisuke's bloody face is there, a little higher up than her own. Me'ran looks up at him, but she doesn't know what to say, so she doesn't say anything.

"Thank you," he finally says, bowing and taking her hand, probably intending to kiss it.

"You're welcome, get away from me," Me'ran answers gruffly, pulling her hand back. Before either of them can say anything, Me'ran turns and runs as fast as she can (and that's saying something, she can almost keep up with Hiei) back to the door of her tower and starts up the stairs.

"What's gotten into you?" Yuusuke shouts through the door. She doesn't answer, but continues running, before she hears him starting up after her.

"Leave me alone, Yuusuke!" she pleads. I don't know why not, I just don't want to face any of them, I don't want to see anyone, I want Hiei, and that's it, dear gods, Yuusuke, get that through your skull! she adds mentally,

He catches up to the Healer, seizes her arm in a tight grip and pins her to the wall, slamming her hard against it, apparently beyond caring what damage he does her anymore. She's not even remotely strong enough to fight him, but she feels the warmth she knows to be her reiki flood her whole body and the air around her. The scarlet comes between Me'ran and Yuusuke, slightly obscuring his scowling face. She pulls a little, but it hurts more when he squeezes, so she stops herself.

"You can't do this," he says in softer tones than before. Something in his eyes looks desperate and pleading, and even pained. "It's killing you to be this way."

"Nothing but time is killing me, Yuusuke," Me'ran answers, trying to pull away. He doesn't let go, so she doesn't get very far. She hates trying to fight people this much stronger than her.

"What's wrong?" he demands. "At least tell me that."

"Let go of me, Yuusuke," Me'ran barks, staring him in the face. This bastard, the hell's gotten into him? He looks like he's gonna weep! The hell?!

"Come on, Meru! I haven't seen you since the last time you healed me, and that was a month ago, and you looked like shit then, and you look like a corpse now! There ain't a word I know that'll describe you better! You haven't come out of there since you got back, you don't even go to get your own food anymore. You've gotten all sick-pale and your eyes, both of 'em, got real dull, and you're skinny as hell and I'm almost scared I'm gonna break you right now. You haven't even tried to fight back, either!" His voice is higher than normal, almost a yelp, and he's looking more and more distressed.

"I can't fight you," Me'ran tells him. "Your grip can break my arm. And in fact, it's going to if you don't loosen up." She stares him in the face, trying to show him how angry she is, and how much the grip on her arm is beginning to hurt.

"What do you care? You never gave a shit about hurting yourself before!" he cries. "Come on, what happened to the Meru that got all those damn scars, huh? When'd you get this self-pres. Pres. Fuck it, when'd you start worrying about your own hide?"

"I still don't, I just know it's useless to fight you, Yuusuke, now let go!" Me'ran bellows, trying to pull away. The grip tightens, hurting more than her pride lets her show.

"Then at least fight! Useless never stopped you before! And you used to could hurt me, why not try now?"

Me'ran reaches up with the arm he's not holding, but he catches it. So she goes for two on his foot and stomps down hard. He nearly cries out, but he doesn't let go. She's grinding her bare heel effectively into his instep, but she's not strong to inflict damage on, or even enough pain to distract, a demon.

"You're stronger than me, Yuusuke, enough so that I can't do anything to hurt you anymore. I am just not strong enough. Now let me go."

He slumps a little and his shoulders fall and his head droops, but he keeps his grip on her. "I gotta. You gotta. You look. This is the first time in days I've seen you, and that was the first time in months you've been out of there. The first time since the tournament. What's...? I mean... You can't be... you can't be like this," he whimpers. She's surprised that he's so concerned for her. She must be in pretty bad shape if even Yuusuke's this worried about her. She'd seen it in his face, now and again, every time she saw him, and in Zuna's and even Jinta stopped coming near her, skirting her mumbling "sick, sick, sick" under his creaking breath.

"Don't you have kingly matters to help Enki with?" Me'ran challenges, trying to move away again, but only hurting herself.

"Not really, he's setting stuff up on his own. After I explained what I knew, he got it pretty quick. Now, Meru, please. Please. At least tell me what's wrong," he begs, looking her in the eyes. She can see he really means it. She wants to make him go away. She considers poisoning him a little. She has a vial in her pocket; all she'd have to do is break it over his arm. Her hand starts for the pocket, but she freezes as her fingertips get into the edge, not wanting to trap her free hand if she hesitated.

"Look, man," Me'ran tells him calmly, regaining all of her composure, getting over anything wrong with her quickly. "I appreciate your concern. I really do. But I don't feel well. I doubt I will ever again, okay? I want to stay up here and do my work and heal the dumbshits you play with and you if you ever need it again. Now, I'm going to go into the bathroom you were so kind to have built for me, and I'm going to stay there so that way, I have a very good excuse to blind and deafen you with the chemical I have in my pocket should you chase after me."

He eases off, slowly releasing her arm and stepping back, looking kind of unsettled. Then the thought occurs to him, and he looks puzzled. "Why do you carry-"

"You saw how you pinned me--I need protection, Yuusuke, and I can't trust everyone around me to do it for me, now, can I?" Me'ran asks with a half-smirk, an attempt at a smile and normal conversation. It doesn't work, but she tried.

"Why not just--" he starts as she walks away.

"I don't kill, Yuusuke," she answers as she turns her back to him.

* * *

Me'ran goes back up the stairs. Sazuna meets her when she gets up to the room.

"Ah, Me'ran!"

Me'ran is struck with a little bubbling of annoyance. She's acting surprised to see the Healer in the lab. "Did Yuusuke-"

"Nope, it was Koku," she says cheerfully, already knowing her question, she guesses. She must've heard what Yuusuke and she were just discussing--she has incredibly keen ears, and the stairs echo horribly.

"I'm taking a bath," Me'ran tells her, starting for the door on the eastern side of the room. Sazuna follows closely.

"Ooh, let me join you!" she squeaks excitedly. (As in Japan and ancient Rome, Demon World believes that baths are social things. The demons that take baths, anyway. Washing isn't, but bathing is.)

"No, no, no, Zuna, dammit!" Me'ran curses, dropping her body weight back, exasperated. "Goddammit."

Sazuna has pushed her way into the bathroom, and now she's standing in the doorway. Her long rat face doesn't hide her shock--her eyes are huge, and her jaw has dropped open, and she's got the beginnings of a smile on. The rest of her body's gone slack for negligence, too, what with her mind being occupied by her surprise. It's a very nice bathroom. The bath is practically a swimming pool, and it's deep enough to swim in on one side, and shallow enough to lay down on the other. There's actual running water, too, though it smells of magma and molten rock. The water comes from a hot spring, and someone set it up to pump water up to the tub. It's really nice.

"Wow, Meru, you get the royal treatment!" she exclaims as the speechlessness leaves her. Damn.

"I'm the royal family's head healthcare. Means I amused Raizen and settled his stomach a little, I've helped Yuusuke a lot, I've saved every idiot he spars with's ass, and I have the potential to save everyone else's life. You treat the healer well, and you do not piss her off," Me'ran sighs. "That, and one of Raizen's Advisors played with Yuusuke and got his arm removed and was so happy with me fixing it, he suggested it."

"Wooowww..."

Me'ran sighs quietly and opens the valve that lets the hot water through the pipes, and the tub begins to fill up. (Me'ran herself had to fix the mechanics of the pipe and the faucet.) Then Me'ran moves to the wash basin, gets the soap-stuff (She made it.) and she starts to undress, but then she remembers Sazuna. "Go away, 'Zuna," Me'ran orders annoyedly.

"What do I care, you've got less than I've got," 'Zuna answers, gesturing at her ample bosom.

"Please, go away?" Me'ran inquires, not dropping the commanding tones, but being more polite about it and hoping it might work. No such luck.

The rat demoness gives her a level look and smirks. "Nope."

Me'ran growls in her throat, then just shuts it out of her head and strips and washes herself, then dumps the basin over her head, and then sits on the edge of her swimming pool/tub. Sazuna walks over and plays with one of the flowers in her hair, and Me'ran swats at her and covers herself quickly. "Don't!" she yelps, though she's not sure if she's talking about the flower or getting so close to her while she's naked.

"I was just checking to see what was wrong with it--it's closed. You've been eating enough to maintain it, right? Or has it started eating that much out of you? What's been wrong with you?" she asks. 'Zuna's following her lead and she's scooped up some water into the basin and washing off herself, rumpling the grayish silver fur and massing it up with the soap. She turns to look at Me'ran while the human girl watches her, and she smiles, and then dumps the basin over her head, soaking her fur thoroughly.

"You're going to get fleas in my tub," Me'ran whines.

"That's not what I asked," she tells the sulking human as she shakes herself sort of dry and moves and squats next to the side of the tub and the scowling human half-in it. Me'ran very determinedly doesn't look at her.

"What did you ask?" Me'ran asks, trying to get the rat-bitch away from her by annoying her. 'Zuna drops into the deep part of the tub and swims to the shallower part. The annoying thing worked.

"Why haven't we seen your gray, distraught face since Enki won the tournament? I think Koku's the only one that's seen you and maybe Enki because he was carrying her. And that was because she was that badly hungover. Yuusuke murdering that guy is the first time I've seen you outside in." She pauses, and Me'ran hears her counting. "Three months and two weeks."

"Because I don't want to be outside," M'eran sighs, dropping in herself so she can hide under the water. She goes completely under for a minute, until she can't hold her breath anymore, and she has to come up.

"Oh, hey, the flowers opened a little. They look grayer than normal. So what's bothering you? Is it that fire demon?" she asks, suddenly looking sincere and moving a little closer to the human. Me'ran muses that she's pretty like that, with her white hair flowing on top of the water behind her. Me'ran scoots away, her own tail of hair moving around her in one mass, held together by the tendrils of the vine.

"Shut up," M'eran spits, not having an answer. "Get out of my tub."

"His name was Hiei, wasn't it?" she continues, ignoring Me'ran's vehement attempts to get her to go the hell away.

"It is," Me'ran concedes. She wanted mainly to correct the saying "Was", which, in her book, implies that he's dead.

"He's still with Mukuro?" 'Zuna inquires, now. Me'ran thinks about heading underwater again, but she doesn't.

"Yeah."

"Yeah, Yuusuke said you had a falling out with her. What happened?"

"She kicked my ass. She's S Class, what the hell do you expect?" Me'ran complains heatedly. Me'ran feels herself growing more and more upset at 'Zuna's relentless drilling.

"You're alive...? After an S Class got after you?" she challenges. She's questioning Me'ran's story.

"You remember I can't die," Me'ran reminds her sweetly, pointing at the scar under her ribs. Well, one of them, the first one's from her, the other's from... she forgot. "The bitch mangled the shit out of me. I didn't get any scars, except these," Me'ran explains, holding up her elbow that has three huge white spots on it from where the bones came out of the skin, and then pointing at the white scar in her eyebrow.

'Zuna smirks a little, but then her eyes wander the human girl's body. And she continues to allow them to do so for a long time. It's disquieting, but Me'ran tries to be tough and not let the demoness's eyes bother her.

"You're making me uncomfortable," Me'ran says quietly after a minute, finally allowing herself to be bugged. She's not sure if 'Zuna's looking at her scars or at her naked body, but either way, the staring's just a bit much. Judging by the look of unease on the rat-like face, 'Zuna's scrutiny is focused on the scars.

"You really are immortal, huh?" Scars. Me'ran folds her arms over her breasts and she curls up around the gunshot wounds.

"Yeah," Me'ran sighs. "I've tried so many times to die it's not even funny anymore."

"And a human. Most demons don't scar that badly. That isn't to say we don't scar, but that's... that's awful, Me'ran. That whole part of you's just one big scar... and... the... Wow..."

"Shut up," Me'ran pleads again. "Please."

"What are all those," 'Zuna asks, gesturing across her own front, mostly at her thoracic abdomen(1).

"Bullet holes," Me'ran sighs, leaning her head back against the side of the tub.

"Did they hurt?" The demoness moves closer to examine the ones the human hasn't hidden. She reaches out and touches at the deep scars in her arm from where something bit her, probably the shouakki two years ago.

"Shut up and get away from me," Me'ran barks, moving away from her questioner. The memory of the pain and that fucking bastard shooting her, what the hell's wrong with people that they can't just leave me alone...?

"Who shot you?"

"Some human asshole."

"Why...?"

"Look, it's a long story; I'd appreciate it if you just left me alone!" Almost by reflex, Me'ran's arms move back, and she becomes aware of the fact that she's fully prepared to hit the rat-woman, but Me'ran holds herself back and settles her arms at her sides. 'Zuna sees this, and she finally understands that Me'ran really does not want to talk about it. She looks kind of surprised and adopts a soft smile, hoping to settle the human.

"Why is Hiei so special?" she finally asks. "What's so special about a boy like him that you'll starve yourself because he's not there anymore? What I saw of you two, you stayed angry at him all the time, and you fought like cats and dogs."

"I don't know," Me'ran mutters, slumping into the water. "It's complicated. I almost hated him, as much as I'm capable of it, for a long time. It was easy--he was such an asshole, he dragged me to the Makai twice to help him. The first time, I had to heal a hole in his back, and the second time, he got bitten by a Dokuja and I had to poison myself to save his ass. I don't know how it happened. Just. I don't know." Me'ran slides down the bathtub wall, leaving only her nose above the water for a second before she picks her chin up to talk again. "He loved me. I guess I could feel it more than anything, 'cos he certainly didn't tell me. He and Kurama were at odds for it, too, but. We couldn't even figure it out, we both knew, but neither of us knew what to do about it. So. We finally got into a fight, and."

Tears well up in her eyes, and Me'ran goes right under the water, hiding under there. She feels a clawed hand wrap around her arm and pull her out of the water.

"You're not going to drown on my watch," 'Zuna tells her after she rubs the water out of her eyes.

"I can't without intent to die, let go of me," Me'ran answers, pulling away from her.

'Zuna suddenly looks hurt, and Me'ran sees how she's being looked over again. This time, 'Zuna focuses on her face and her side, where she's sure her ribs are showing. Her mouth pulls down, and she looks hurt. "Why don't you... Why are you letting it... I mean, even that flower in your hair has started to shrivel up--the leaves and flowers're fallin' off, and you're gray and you haven't left this room in ages... I mean, I think it's killing you."

"It's not killing me. Nothing can," Me'ran answers irritably. The water under her chin ripples as a tear falls into it. She chokes back a sob, then fails to do it again, and she starts all out crying. Me'ran slips her head half-under the water and hides her face and lets her eyes water. Sazuna's face contorts and she leans back, like she's surprised to see how hurt she is.

"You know what, I'm gonna let you mourn," she says, pulling herself out of her tub and going back to her clothes. She shakes herself off, then dresses. "I'll talk to you later."

* * *

Enki visits a couple of days later.

Me'ran is alerted to this by sensing him. And then by the tentative knocks on the door. "Me'ran-san?"

Me'ran ignores him. She doesn't want to go let him in, and Me'ran doesn't want him to talk to her, especially since she already knows what he wants--Koku's out with friends, and will be for a few days, so it's not her, so it's the state of near-death she's stayed in.

"Me'ran-san?" he asks again, louder, making sure his voice carried through the door and into the bathroom or bedroom. "I know you're up, you've already had that spare chunk of Terashira steal your breakfast. If you don't let me in, I'll. Um. Have you arrested."

"No, you won't," Me'ran answers blandly, not getting out of her chair, yet. "You like me too much. Plus you know I'll be eaten."

"Fair point. Please open the door, Me'ran-san," Enki requests kindly.

"Stop calling me 'san', Your Highness. I'm not letting you in," Me'ran answers, still not moving from her chair. She considers getting up and throwing something at the door to make her audience less desired, but she doesn't feel like getting up.

There's one loud banging noise as the door flies open and hits the wall and then falls off its hinges. Me'ran stands up and crosses her arms and glares at him. Enki is standing with his shoulder where the door was once braced, and he shifts back to his normal stance and moves close to Me'ran in as threatening a manner as he can manage. Which would be absolutely terrifying, because he's an eight to ten foot tall, red-skinned, horned man that is too big to be allowed, bulky and his arms are probably three times around as Me'ran, four times, with her weight loss considered. She's still not intimidated, though. Me'ran just stands and faces him. He drops it as soon as he gets close and sighs and drops his shoulders and looks down at Me'ran.

"Don't call me 'Your Highness'," he says first, kneeling down to her level, sort of. He's still taller than her, but he is making the effort to not put her face-to-face with his crotch.

"When you quit calling me 'san'. Now, what is it, Your Highness?" Me'ran demands, getting kinda pissy at this, now.

"Awww, you don't have to do that, now, do you?" he asks, sitting down on his ass, becoming just a hair shorter than Me'ran. He puts his hands in his lap. She starts busying herself with gathering the flower petals for Koku out of sheer habit. He watches for a second, then clears his throat and starts talking in a semi-official voice, or what he calls his official voice, though it's still sweet and kindly.

"I, and everyone else around here, have started noticing that you... Well. You're not eating, you don't sleep much or at least not like a normal person, and you've been getting... It's not unbecoming, but... There are rings under your eyes and your skin is going kind of gray."

"Yuusuke's told me, Sazuna's told me, Raizen told me before he died, Kurama told me last time he was here, I am fully aware of this," Me'ran reports annoyedly. "What of it."

"Someone informed me that there was a young man that you were with at the tournament, a short fire demon, who is on Mukuro's patrol squad. And that you knew him before you came here, and... Well, apparently, you were in love," he continues tentatively. He's watching her face for her reaction. Her reaction is less than visible, but she still doesn't know what to say.

"Patrol squad?" Me'ran finally inquires, trying to pretend she doesn't give a shit that he knows. She's secretly planning to slip a laxative into Sazuna's food and make her shit for three days straight, but that'll come later.

"I set them up--they find humans that accidentally fall into demon world, erase their memories, then send them back, and they keep demons out of human world." Me'ran nods a little, then hands him the small cloth bag. They'll be good for a week, but she doesn't know how to elongate petal life, so. He keeps talking. Damn, and she almost had herself distracted. "I won't assume it's true unless you tell me it is, but... if that's the case, then I can arrange to have you set up on the Patrol, too. A human to protect humans would be useful, especially such a remarkable healer. All you'd have to do is train someone to understand the plants here enough to keep them alive and care for them. In fact, I imagine that I can find a smart enough demon to do it for you--you've got everything written down somewhere or somehow. If for no other reason, you could go so you could help Hiei erase memories."

Me'ran looks up at him, at his face, to see if he's being sincere. He is. He's smiling down at her.

"How did you know I could do that?" Me'ran finally asks, lost for anything else to say.

"You're a great woman, and good news travels just as fast as bad. Now... Why is it you're here, drying up and shriveling like a dying flower, rather than staying with him, where you belong?"

Me'ran sits down on the chair she's claimed, and she curls up a little and looks up at him, wondering how to put it, until, finally, she sighs. "'Where you belong'. It's such a joke. Hiei Jaganshi is not for me to be near anymore. His current lover is much more possessive."

"I doubt they're lovers," he informs the human girl lightly. "I never met him except when I was telling him he was on Patrol, but the way Raizen Jr. talks about him, he's way more loyal than that."

Me'ran sits and considers this. They were obviously close, but both of them... Neither of them is exactly mentally or emotionally stable. Neither would want to be with each other, now, would they? Would Hiei really deny himself nookie over a dumb human brat? And. He did look a little worse at the tournament. Not nearly as badly as Me'ran, but he wasn't in perfect condition--he'd lost weight. So... she might still have a place with him...

Enki sees the thought in her face, and a hopeful smile spreads over his face. He knows he's cheered her up at least a little.

"What about Mukuro?" Me'ran asks, finally seeing the big obstacle. "She'll hurt me. Or Hiei. Or both. In fact, I think last time I spoke to her, she threatened to kill him just so she could watch me react."

Enki thinks a second, turning his head to one side and cocking it upward before he grins and pats her shoulder. "Well, I rule Demon World. And I get to do what I want. So I'm sending you to there, and if she tries to kill you, I'll..." The red giant pauses, not sure what to say and he puts his finger to his chin as he thinks a second longer.

"Beat the shit out of her?" Me'ran suggests hopefully, almost smiling. She feels much better, suddenly. Plus, the memory of how well he beat the shit out of her last time is satisfying.

"I was thinking more along the lines of some sort of prison. But either way, it's mandatory. You have no option, so she can't blame you. I just think that the human in the Makai should be sent to save humans, and the medical knowledge will help."

Me'ran grins, finally unable to see anything wrong with the idea (though she's probably deluding herself), and she jumps up and hugs the giant's neck tightly. "Thank you, King Enki."

He blushes. This is remarkable to watch. "Please, stop calling me those things!"

"Well, this time, it wasn't just a formality to piss you off. You're playing King; I should treat you like one, ne?" He blushes even more, and Me'ran starts picking at her plants, trying to decide which ones would be most versatile going with her. "When am I going to be transferred?"

"I'm sending a messenger today to warn her today, so that she doesn't kill you when you get there. You'll go in a week. Or when we can no longer sense her from here," he says decisively, sitting down on a table made for people his size and leaning on his knees. "She's got enough sense to not kill her messenger."

"You know how much she hates me, then?" Me'ran asks. "And you're still sending me?"

He nods, once, and the determination in his face doesn't fade, even remotely. "I heard that the first time she laid eyes on you, she broke you into several pieces. The only reason you didn't die was because of that... Undying, thing. But I think it would be better for you to be hurt once and heal again than be sick the way you've been."

Me'ran nods, then smiles again.

* * *

(1)Thoracic abdomen that part of your body that is right below the boobs, right at the bottom of the ribcage and right above the belly-part. The words themselves mean "chest-belly". 


	82. In Alaric

Okay. So. There are chunks that I can't redownload, and I don't have any money to go buy the damn DVD's/videos, and even if I did, there's nowhere to buy it. I made shit up again.

But either way--Mukuro's palace-thing, and there are her big-ass bug-thing transports. And the big-ass bug-things are what go on patrol, she sends several of the demons out on them, two at a time for twenty-four hours or whatever the hell, and Mukuro usually stays in her big-palace thing and runs the shit.

Hiei's in the palace, by the way, at least at the beginning.

Oh, and if you can't figure out what he's doing, you don't need to know.

* * *

_In Alaric_

Even Hiei's Jagan doesn't know how long it's been. It's been. A season. That's about the only measurement he's figured out. It's the beginning of autumn, even in this part of the Makai, though it is abnormally hot, here.

Right now, Hiei is in his room, taking care of some "business". The images and memories of that human girl swim through his head, the way her head arches back when he moved just right, or the way her cool skin felt against his own heat, and the way her lips felt against his, even the first time, in her inexperience...

He'd never had to do this before. He'd bedded a few demons in his time before her, but he'd never loved them. To be fair, he'd never had the time to, he was a bit busy just moving on to avoid being killed, since he started out so weak. But even so, ever since he and she had... for lack of a better way to put it, made love, since he and she became lovers, he's not been able to even stand the idea of finding someone else to bed. So he has to take care of things himself. When the two of them made love, it was special, so the idea is... disgusting, even the idea of just fucking someone without meaning anything, for some bizarre reason.

With that damn human girl, even the mindless fucking wasn't mindless, because he had to keep control of himself, else he'd risk hurting her badly enough to inspire a limp. (Again.) He can remember the way her lips would just graze his ears, the way her teeth would meet his lips clumsily and his would cut into hers, or when her hands would trail down his back, going over each vertebrae with one of her claws, almost drawing blood, and her thumbs would find that spot over his hip that made him twitch.

Hiei just finishes when he feels Mukuro's youki. What the hells is she doing here? He sits upright, feeling as she moves through the hall, past his room, but nothing else. She's pissed. It hasn't been that strong since she ran into Me'ran, last. "Fucking bitch," he hears Mukuro cursing a few rooms away. This is unusual. She's been in a good mood since the end of the tournament, with Me'ran being sufficiently taken care of. In fact, she sent a spy to see if the human brat, Enki, or anyone else in the late Raizen's castle was planning anything, but the only word he'd gotten back was that Me'ran was dying, or looked like she was, since, obviously, she couldn't die.

Hiei rolls over on the bed and stares at the wall hard. He wishes she were here. He wishes he'd gone ahead and let Mukuro try to hurt one of them. But Meruran wasn't in condition to fight, or heal, she'd been working all day, and facing Mukuro like that was hard enough on her, he could see it was all she could do to face her. In fact, he'd been impressed and surprised with the determination. He'd seen her put her feet down, but this time, Me'ran really truly pulled something, facing Mukuro at her most terrifying... Damn. I really should have just taken her and run.

"Hiei?" someone asks. "Your shift."

Hiei rolls out of the bed annoyedly, not even grunting at the one that told him it was his turn. Even he's noticed the depression. Even when interacting with Mukuro, he's quiet, he stays out of the way and nearly silent. He wouldn't go near Mukuro at all if he didn't respect the fact that if he didn't, she would seek him out, and that would be just fucking annoying. Not only that, but she gives him a little bit of relief. Not the kind he was just seeking, but she eases the power of the stupid fucking emotions plaguing him.

On the way down the hall, Hiei sees a pinkish red glow that he knows is Mukuro's (so close to Me'ran's, but not quite), and Kirin cleaning blood off his helmet. He's confused, but he keeps it to himself. He has completely shut it out of his head when he sees Mukuro following him. The hell does she want?

And then, completely unexpected, he feels a mind intruding his own, the feel of Mukuro's. He tries to shove it out, but his mental block isn't nearly as strong as it used to be, and the Jagan is what allows him to look into minds, not his own abilities. So he looks into her head in return, searching for why she's searching his mind.

Her mental block is much better. She forces him out with relative ease. He turns to face her in his annoyance. "If you're not going to grace me with the reason behind your sudden intrusion, leave me." After a second more, she does, apparently satisfied by whatever she learned, but she still doesn't look happy. He's tempted to ask, but he doesn't. He turns on his toes and goes to the front of the beetle for his shift. She follows him. Damn.

"What do you mean, 'damn', Hiei?" she asks unhappily. Well, he knows it's unhappy, anyway, to an onlooker that didn't know, it would have sounded like she was merely asking a simple question, as if she didn't know what the word meant. This was not, in fact, a question. It's a demand.

"I'm not in the mood for company," Hiei tells her simply as he steps out to the front of the fortress, heading to the "garage" with the beetles. She continues following him. He jumps onto its head, sitting near one of its huge antennae, and then lying down on it with his hands under his head. He'd beg with her mentally to go away, but she can hear him, and that wouldn't be good. She'd follow him out of spite.

"What you were doing when I passed your room contradicts that statement," she says smoothly.

"If I wanted company in any way but that one, I would come find you," Hiei argues.

Mukuro doesn't say anything after that; she just joins him, staying close to him. Strangely possessive. Again. Normally, she leaves him alone, respecting that he likes his privacy, but she's being clingy, now. "The hell's gotten into you?" he snaps at her, swinging his head to her. He's happy none of the others are around--they'd kill him if they knew he spoke to Mukuro the way he does, so he has to mind himself and keep his snapping at her to when they're alone. She doesn't say anything. She just glares out at nothing. Something's pissing her off. Alright, then.

Ugh, Hiei grumbles mentally. Damn human, then Mukuro, and it's all so stupid, how could he let this happen to him?

"Hiei?" Mukuro asks. For the first time in ages, she sounds like an insecure woman. He's so surprised by this that he sits up and looks at her, searching the half of her face he can see for what she's thinking.

"The hell's wrong with you?" he asks, concerned. What the hell could reduce her from a ruler, a queen, to... Is that a tear?

She doesn't say anything. She doesn't want to say anything. She's sacrificed part of her pride in calling his name, and then letting him see the tear, and she's not willing to let him see anymore of her vulnerability right now. She's shown him everything, but there are still things she wants to hide. Another trait Me'ran and she share, hiding things that don't have to be hidden. Something he shares, too.

Hiei waits a second, then sighs and turns away from her. "Damn women, all of you are just damn pathetic. Get over it," Hiei commands, crossing his arms and rising to his feet.

Then he feels her hand over his arm and her other arm snaking over his chest. It feels so much like the way Me'ran used to wrap her arms around him that his breath hitches, and he expects to feel her hair spill over his shoulder and past his ear, but it doesn't. And, in fact, Mukuro's chest pressing to his back forces any illusion he could offer himself away, because Me'ran's breasts were larger, and Mukuro is taller than Me'ran, so where Me'ran's chest would be resting against the back of his shoulders and her breasts would be just under his shoulderblades, Mukuro's lower ribs are pressed to his upper back and her breasts are halfway resting on his shoulders.

"Get off me," Hiei tells her. She doesn't. She, unlike Me'ran, doesn't listen, and she doesn't respect the fact that he doesn't want to be touched when she does want to be touched, or wants to touch. He gives her a few more seconds to comply, and then he pulls away from her, trying to avoid being too weak about it, because if she doesn't want to let go, she won't. And she doesn't. "Let go of me," he spits again, pulling harder. She tightens her hold.

"I'm afraid not, Hiei," she whispers. "Indulge me for a few minutes," she pleads, now. Hiei growls quietly and lets her. Damned women, at least Me'ran let him go. "She's been on your mind a lot, Hiei," she growls quietly. He hears the displeasure in her voice. That can't be what she's so pissed about. Last time, it took him nearly six months to even think about forgiving the bionic woman, and the only reason he did was because he could feel himself getting weaker and weaker. He didn't understand why that was happening, but weakness is not something he permits. He hates that he was that dependent on her, but he hated the weakness more, and so he had to find something to fill the hollow spot and stop his body from decaying the way it was. She should be a little more giving on the matter. She should have expected him to stay away from her... He has not displayed real loyalty to her, yet, nothing other than what was required to keep her from killing him.

The memory of the way Me'ran looked when she first approached him and the other two at the tournament, and she took off the mask, and he could see the rings under her eyes and how she'd gotten so thin, and the way her blue eye looked on the verge of tears and the purple one looked hollow and empty comes rushing back to him, and he scowls, trying to rid his mind of the image. He feels Mukuro's hold on him tighten, as if she's afraid to let him go, now, and he scowls. How the hell can she think that the thoughts of Me'ran are going to take him away? How can a dumb human be that much of a threat to the second strongest demon in the Makai?

"Let go of me, Mukuro," Hiei spits again, trying to pull away. She lets go, then sits down. He lies back down and stares hard to the left, trying to show her he's not interested in being near her, or even her presence.

"What is it, Hiei?" she asks in the softest tones he thinks she's capable of. She sounds almost sympathetic, this time. He knows she's not. She's trying to get him to admit he's feeling horrible about the loss of his goddamned human again.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with me when you tell me what's wrong with you," Hiei counters coldly, trying to get her to tell him, or leave him alone. Neither. Dammit! She moves closer to him. He almost flees, wanting her to take his shift, or going to send Kirin out here to do it for him. He doesn't want her near him. He never has wanted her near him, her skin's even colder than Me'ran's, chilling, and he doesn't want her near him while he's feeling so shitty. He also doesn't want her near him while he's stuck on the human bitch that he can't get out of his head.

Her hand, the one still composed of flesh, puts itself on his chest. He rolls away from her, growling quietly in warning. She looks down at him, mocking innocence.

"It's that damn human, isn't it?" she snaps. "You're feeling it all over again." He notices that her whole body is showing her anger, her stance has fixed to offensive, almost looking like she's about to stand up and attack him, but she's not, because she can't. She won't attack him for something that stupid, he hopes.

"Leave me alone, Mukuro," Hiei barks, moving away from her. He never did deal well when he was in pain, not speaking to anyone and lashing out when spoken to. He knew this would be in his nature, but he still hates it. He's still pissed at everything, and he wishes he could be left alone to recover. And what's gotten into her?! She knew he was grieving! She looked into his mind earlier, she can forgive him that, at least, after doing it to him.

Goddamned... woman...

She leaves. She doesn't say anything. She doesn't do anything. She just gets up and leaves. Hiei growls quietly under his breath and perches on the head of the beetle as it lurches into motion, and waits for his shift to be up. The hell. Goddammit.

* * *

Hiei rolls onto his side and stares out over the woods, annoyed with everything, how Mukuro's treating him for her displeasure and how poorly he's coping with her second loss, and how badly she's coping with his grief. This is so stupid. 


	83. Walking Into Danger

_Walking into Danger_

Over the week she's given, Me'ran prepares plant samples to go with her, and every bit of medical equipment she thinks she might need (not much, she's only going to be treating fall injuries and erasing memory). The messenger that was sent to tell her that she was going over there came back with a hole in his back. She's mildly frightened, but Enki doesn't change his mind. She wonders for a few minutes if he's acting out of kindness or out of being sick of her and her usual disrespect.

But she goes anyway. She puts on her best robes and fixes the mask that she's grown so fond of back on, and she lets her purple eye show. Mukuro'll know it's Me'ran, and Kirin might, but if she's made any enemies, it's best they not know who she is. She doesn't think she's made enemies, but Mukuro DOES hate her, and she could have let one of her underlings in on this.

A guard escorts Me'ran to the palace, says a quick good-bye before fleeing a short way away, probably waiting to see if she's going to be sent flying back out of there, and Me'ran goes inside. Mukuro's not there, thank god, but Kani's waiting for her. The two of them move quickly through the palace, hoping that Mukuro is not going to bother them. "I can't believe... Me'ran-sama--" he stutters.

"Stop calling me that," Me'ran spits irritably.

"This is suicide!" he yelps quietly, almost whispering. "You shouldn't be here! She hates you!"

"Enki said so. I didn't want to come after I had to bring the messenger back to life. They don't seem to know the difference between immortality and invulnerability, and Enki decided to ignore, or forget, that I feel pain, and that I was horrifically mutilated the last time I was here. I don't want to be here anymore than anyone wants me here. The only good thing this might even get close to bringing about involves broken bones."

Me'ran shivers when she enters a new hallway, hit with a wave of unpleasant feelings and an aura of evil. She looks up and around, moving her mask so that she can look around with her blue eye.

"Why are you wearing that mask?" Kani asks quietly.

"I don't know who will know me, but I figure it's best if I don't announce anything," Me'ran sighs. "I have lost a few, and people are bitter, sometimes."

It's quiet for a minute, and then Me'ran feels a powerful surge of youki, and she's pushed to one side by it. It's gray-green, she notices, and not Mukuro's normal reddish pink. Then there's an impact on one side of her body, and then the other side and the impact of her body against the wall makes her crumple to the floor.

"Kirin, she's expressed how she hates when you attack the servants for anything less than an actual offense," barks an irritated voice that Me'ran happens to know belongs to her lover. Then she hears a choked off sound of distress that also belongs to Hiei.

"I think being the woman that our leader hates more than Enki counts as an offense, Hiei," snips Kirin. He's got his foot on the traveling robe she's wearing, and his enormous leg is too heavy to pull out from under, even if he wasn't applying strength.

Hiei, however, is frozen, staring at Me'ran. Kani is the one that comes to her rescue.

"I was taking her to see Mukur--" he begins before he's cut off by a very powerful voice.

"The hell was that about, Kirin--Oh, shit, it's you." Mukuro's voice is not one Me'ran's happy to hear. Mukuro doesn't seem to happy at the sight of her, either.

Three more demons appear. There's a green one that makes her think of the green giant thing on the green bean cans that she always called "Jack" for some reason. She's not sure why her brain is thinking of green beans, now, but she thinks it might be related to the whiplash and the fact that she's currently in a situation that is not good, and not-good-situations are usually met with a distraction, or a complete inability to focus by her brain.

"Let her up, Kirin," snaps Mukuro.

"What is that?" asks the green one that she has decided is going to be called "Jack" from now on.

"That is a human, and the healer that will be accompanying you boys in turn on Patrol," responds Mukuro dryly. Me'ran suddenly becomes aware of the fact that her voice has a very powerful overtone, and an icy undertone, and they are equally intimidating. She'd be scared if she were in her right mind.

Kirin's foot lifts away from her robe, and then Mukuro moves for her. Both Hiei and Kirin jump at the sudden motion, Hiei probably for fear for her, and Kirin for fear of being in the path, but her body doesn't move to save itself, so she guesses she doesn't mean to attack. Mukuro takes hold of the shoulder of Me'ran's robe and drags her off promptly. Kirin and Hiei both follow, but Me'ran's not sure if Mukuro's aware of this or not.

Me'ran hardly manages to get her feet under her before Mukuro steers her into a room and locks the doors, then puts her in a chair. Me'ran pulls herself upright and straightens her robes, then sits down as if she'd sat there herself. "What the hell is that in your hair?" Mukuro demands angrily, looking at one arm where the sleeve's been torn and blood underneath is flowing. Me'ran automatically reaches into a pocket, leans up, and runs a salve over them, the liquid stitches Kurama showed her how to make a little over a year ago.

"Plant. I've had it for a while, use it for when there're emergencies, it's real good for temporary life-saving maneuvers and the like. Are you going to try to kill me again?"

Mukuro collapses into her chair across a table. "I am painfully aware of the fact that I can't kill you. Hiei's informed me that he's tried, and he can't, either. Kirin can't, either. Your kind is even rarer in the Makai because of the rarity of good healers. The few good healers are Undying themselves, and Undying can't create more Undying. And you are a stubborn bitch who will not listen to a direct command," she sighs exasperatedly. "You're an idiot, a human, a girl, and it is beyond frustrating to not be able to kill such a thorn in my side. In fact, I expressed this once out loud, and Hiei agreed with me whole heartedly, so I can assume that even the two of you had a rough time learning to deal with one another."

"Yep," Me'ran agrees softly. She doesn't mean to be disrespectful; she's just so scared to say anything else. She considers adding a "ma'am" or "lord" or "lady", but she's not sure which one she needs to call the demoness because of Kirin calling her "lord" despite her obvious femininity, plus she hates Me'ran, so it wouldn't do any good anyway.

Mukuro doesn't say anything for a long time. She just glares hard at the table with the blue eye she has left. Me'ran suddenly realizes that both their blue eyes are on opposite sides, with Mukuro's blue eye being on her left, and Me'ran's blue eye being on the right--between them, they have a matching pair. Ha.

"I told you to stay away," Mukuro finally says in a low, dangerous voice. Chills trace down her spine, but Me'ran fights the fear until she can answer.

"When I had to figure out what you nearly had. Woss-name killed with, I wanted to. But Enki said so. Besides. I can't," Me'ran finally sighs concededly. Mukuro narrows her eyes at the human girl and sits up a little better. Me'ran cringes, but just a little, and she braces herself farther in her seat. She's waiting to be attacked, but she doesn't back down or show fear. It's a sign of defiance, staring into the stronger woman's eyes, the blue one, specifically, set on watching her rage, but not backing down in the face of it.

"Why can't you just stay gone?" she demands quietly, almost whispering. Her voice is weak, worn with emotion, sounding sickly and tired. Me'ran's surprised to hear it, but she dares not let her face betray this. "He's not worth risking yourself again--not only has he hurt you, too, but you remember all the pain and injuries clearly and I could do it again and worse, and just over one man. You're even risking him, considering he'll die to protect you! And yet you'd rather face me and my wrath again and again rather than just stop being stupid." Mukuro crosses her arms and glares hard at her with the blue eye. Me'ran continues to meet her gaze, letting her bore eyes bore into her, but she doesn't back down, as much as she wants to. She picks up one heel to shift in her seat, but then her leg begins shaking so hard she has to practically stomp her foot to make it stop.

"You know what my reason is," Me'ran finally whispers. She tries to bring her voice up, but she can't. She's scared shitless. "My reason's the same as yours. Nothing can stop me. Death could, but I can't die. It's that simple. Pain just makes me more stubborn. Even being broken into twenty-three pieces."

"Did you count?" she asks with a pleased smirk. Me'ran's fear dissipates. She smiles like she knows something, but Me'ran knows that there's nothing to know, and that she's not planning to hurt her anymore. Mukuro, while pleased with the damage she wrought last time, knows what little good it does.

"I could go by memory and figure it out," Me'ran offers conversationally, pulling a leg into the chair now that she's loosening up.

"Oh, really?"

She pauses to think for a second, then starts to tap each spot she knew was broken as she counts. Cheek, brow, arm, arm, arm, leg, leg, leg, arm, arm, ankle, hand, foot, spine, spine, neck, rib, rib, rib, collarbone... "Twenty-seven."

"Out of two ... How many is it?" she asks.

"Two hundred six, in my case. Humanoid demons can have a few more or a few less. I think you're one of the cases with a few less, even ignoring the bionic bit. I think you did pretty well, as far as crushing the shit out of me. You even got my hip bone. I don't think you could have done much better without sitting on me and crushing every bone individually. Most of them are in my hands and feet, and you broke one of each, so there's more..."

Mukuro smirks again, almost smiling, this time. Me'ran's trying not to twitch every time she moves. This kindness is almost worse than the hostility. "Remarkable damn human," she sighs, before putting her feet on the table and looking the human in the skull. She'd say eyes, but Mukuro is not looking at her eyes, she's looking past them, having bored through them with the one of her own, straight to her brain, and studying the back of the inside of her head. "Did you ask him to assign you here?" she demands coldly.

"No," Me'ran answers simply. She's still reluctant to look into Mukuro's half-face, but she does.

"How did you wind up so fortunate? Pure chance?" Mukuro continues in heated tones, getting angrier audibly. Her rage with her presence is coming back. But despite her anger, she's still keeping her cool. Me'ran's surprised she's being so calm. The Healer is still waiting to hit the back wall and wake up on the floor with her head facing the wrong way and one leg off, but she's not as afraid as she was when she first sat down. She's beginning to hope that Mukuro's accepting that she can't change that Me'ran loves Hiei.

"Well?" she demands. Her thinking had kept her from answering. Whups.

Me'ran curls up a little, worried about how well she's going to take this next answer. "They got concerned for me. After the tournament, they never saw me, and the ones that did see me kept asking me if I was okay. You can still see it," Me'ran explains, gesturing at her face. "I'm still recovering, but the marks of it are still here. Gray skin, eyes sunk in and dark, losing weight. Even my flower's begun to wilt. The last time I looked like this, I had been dying of dehydration for two days. Except then I didn't have my flower. I love him. And. Your taking him from me. The way that happened. It was awful, it did damage to me in such a way that I couldn't take it."

"Why did you wind up here?" Mukuro asks, now. She still looks pissed.

"Because one of the people in the castle that knew about Hiei can't keep their damn mouth shut," Me'ran answers, leaning against her knees. She poisoned Sazuna for that loud mouth of hers. She put a powder in her food that made her mouth dry up and the muscles in her mouth cramp up if she tried to use them. And Me'ran gave Terashira's arm direct orders to continue doing that to her food for a long time. The memory of Sazuna crying out in pain as she tried to talk is satisfying, even though it causes an imaginary ache in her jaws.

"What an absolutely demonic look on your face," Mukuro comments. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"I poisoned the woman that rat me out," Me'ran tells her. "I didn't kill her, but I certainly offered what I felt she deserved. I'm a very good healer, which means that I can do a lot more than heal."

She ignores this, then moves on. "Why did you look so sick?"

"Separation from him," Me'ran answers quickly, staring at the ceiling to avoid her gaze.

"Why wasn't he sick?"

"He's got the bonus comfort of you. I've got a bunch of people that ask me to give them help for a cough," Me'ran answers with a snide smile, curling up behind her knees.

Mukuro snorts a little and leans back in her chair again. It's quiet for a long time, until, finally, she sighs, then speaks again, with a newfound hate and cold in her voice. If it were substance, it would be pure steel--she can feel it in her heart, how much this whole thing hurts her and how much she means her first statement. "I still hate you. You are why..." She cuts herself off and glares hard at the wall for a second. Her body's drooped, and her arms are crossed and her jaw is tensed. "He's got nothing to do with me anymore. Even when I think about him, or seek him out, it's pointless—he's pathetic. Doesn't eat, hardly sleeps. Every now and again, he'll go sit near me, but I don't know if that's for his sake or mine. It makes me sick--he looked better when I found you, and you've only been here a few minutes at most. And when I search his mind, your image rests there. I probably know more about your anatomy than he does, at this point," she growls quietly, sounding very, very displeased. Me'ran blushes a little.

Both women jump to their feet when the door opens and closes firmly and locks again. Mukuro looks pissed at that point. Hiei moves in smoothly and to Me'ran's chair (the closer to the door) and leans against it. Me'ran sits down again, in sync with Mukuro, and she cringes behind her knees again. Mukuro looks at the human brat, then at Hiei, and then back at Me'ran where the look turns into a murderous glare. Me'ran keeps her head on her knees, but doesn't lower her eyes.

"He was no healthier than you are. This is the first time he's even done something besides work or sleep," she finally confesses.

She stands back up, and Me'ran cringes again. Hiei stops leaning on her chair and moves up a little.

"He loves you, too, you know," Me'ran says softly, hiding under her arms and behind her legs.

"Doesn't matter," she sighs. "Something I happen to know as well as you is what being in love does to you. I'm no healer, but I have been self-aware longer than you will even be alive. I have seen many, many things, literally... How old can you possibly be?"

Me'ran's caught off guard by this. And then she has to remember. "I was seventeen... in March when I got here... And... year after that... Raizen croaked... Three months. Three months. I'll be nineteen in a couple of months."

She sneers, then laughs. "I have _been in power_ twenty-five times longer than your entire lifetime! That's not even counting the hundreds of years before that! My gods, what the hell could anyone see in a child like you?" she cackles. "It's beyond me why Hiei would love you, but I suppose to each his own."

It's silent. Hiei stands up and crosses his arms. Me'ran stands as well and looks Mukuro in the face. The pair of blue eyes meet, and Me'ran fortifies her own gaze with knowledge that Mukuro can't kill her and she won't try with Hiei right here.

"Are we done, yet?" Me'ran asks quietly. "'cos if we are, I am going to make a final proposal that you and I play civilized and let Hiei decide, and then I'm going to motion to adjourn, then second my own motion and get the hell out of here."

"Yeah, get out of here," she answers, putting her feet down. Me'ran gets up and walks away, fighting with herself to not look over her shoulder.


	84. Goings On

_Goings On_

Months pass. Three, to be exact. Hiei's under the impression that it's somewhere near her birthday. Me'ran has healed everyone at least once. Takani has received stab wounds from her fork when he would open his mouth while she was eating (he was more her personal bitch than a help to Hiei and the others, he had to keep very quiet about having any relation to Me'ran at all, though Hiei was sure that Mukuro already knew) that she's had to heal. She had to save Aoshi from the brink of death, and had to bring Kirin back to life and has had to heal multiple broken bones on him. He spent the most time with Mukuro, and since Me'ran's return, Mukuro's been more and more likely to just hit whoever, which makes Kirin a common target. The only way he's ever going to repay her is if he dies for her, at this point. Sadayoshi needed a gash in his chest healed up, but that was an accident. This still pretty much covers anyone that might help protect her when he tells her that he's chosen Me'ran. He's waiting for a good time. This, he thinks, might be at the end of the third year he's staying here. He's still being sort of affectionate to Mukuro, and Me'ran's been leaving him to his own devices, which is good.

He wonders how to tell Mukuro. He could always just tell her it's because Me'ran's only got a hundred years to her anyway. This is a partial truth. He'd rather have both over one.

He subconsciously follows Me'ran around the palace the few times she dares to leave her room. This time is no different. He's moving slowly behind her, listening to her bare feet hit the floor. He really wishes she'd put on shoes, but she refuses. She's wearing her robe, this time, though, so that's a relief. He was beginning to get uneasy when she'd go with just the wrappings and pants that barely clung to her hips--Aoshi would make eyes at her.

"Stop, Hiei," she mutters. She's not thinking as she says it, and she seems surprised at the sound of her own voice. He does what her instincts tell him, and he finds out why shortly after the command.

Sadayoshi (a maroon lizard demon and one of the last that is still more on Mukuro's side than Me'ran's) hits the wall at the end of the hall, and then a flicker of Mukuro is visible before Sadayoshi starts "flying" towards him and Me'ran. She catches him easily by the ankle and drops to a crouch so his momentum will allow pull her sliding, but allow her to keep her feet. She slows him until he hits ground, only sliding a little longer. He watches to make sure Mukuro's finished trying to kill him. She sees Hiei and Me'ran and turns and leaves. Me'ran's already healing Sadayoshi. He comes to with a start right after she finishes, and she stands up before he does and she looks right at Hiei. Her eyes are distant, and her mouth is taut, probably from worry of some kind. Seeing Mukuro do that probably scared her.

"Ah, Hiei? I'm going back to my room. Call me if you need me," she says quickly.

Hiei nods to her, then pulls Sadayoshi to his feet. Me'ran gives them a little bit of a bow, more of a nod, and then she turns on her toes and runs almost silently back to her room. Hiei and Sadayoshi head for the outside. "God, I hate her," Hiei sighs. He doesn't, but he's reminded, again, of what a problem having her here is.

"Mukuro..." Sadayoshi begins after a second, recovering slowly from the shock.

"Tried to kill you," Hiei finishes for him, impatient. "She does that."

"Not to me!" he cries, snapping at him. Hiei hears Sadayoshi's scaly feet grind on the floor as his mood is transmitted to them and he takes it out on it. He's approaching the hole in the ceiling that is the door to the outside. Someone's hanging half out of it, a normal sight, when whoever was up there would hear someone coming.

"I think at this point, she's almost killed everyone," Aoshi says conversationally from the hole to the roof. "Did the human save you, Sa'shi?"

Sadayoshi looks mildly abashed, then ignores the question as he jumps for the door, stepping up to it easily. Hiei follows him closely and moves away from the rest of them, picking a perch and sitting in his usual position, elbows on knees, letting his eyes wander the wilderness of the forest without really looking.

Hiei hears another one coming through the door, Kirin, judging by the feel. "She's saved all our skins," he states, apparently having heard the conversation. Then, if he had to guess, someone's giving him a funny look (It's not often Hiei follows the rest of them, and it's even rarer that the five of them wind up in the same place at once, and Kirin completes the quintet.) and he offers an explanation as to his being out here. "Mukuro's in one of her moods, inside is not a place to be."

"Did she get you, too?" Aoshi asks. Kirin gestures, so Hiei doesn't see it. He guesses he nodded, because Aoshi responds with, "Hiei, where is she?"

"Why do I know?" Hiei demands, annoyed that they're asking him. Again. Every time they need to find the damn human, they ask him!

"You're with her all the time. You smell like her," justifies Aoshi, perfectly undaunted by his tone. Hiei almost glares at him, but he doesn't feel like giving him the honor. He's not worth the effort.

Kirin's movements sound twitchy, and his voice sounds bashful. "She found me already," he admits.

"She's not as disgusting as most humans are," Sadayoshi confesses. His voice is quiet and low, almost like he's admitting a secret.

"No, she's not. She doesn't even smell human," agrees Aoshi. His voice is bolder. He likes her. Hiei's known that for quite some time, and Hiei's been very quietly protective and territorial of the human in his presence. He doesn't like the way Aoshi looks at her.

"It's the blood scent," Kirin says evenly, as if he'd given it some thought. Indeed, his voice is falsely speculative. He'd considered this before, but he didn't dare say it out loud. "She smells like blood and flowers."

Hiei catches the admiration in their voices, and he looks at the others, all of whom are exchanging glances. "You can't all like her that much. I know at least Kirin still hates her," Hiei as good as barks, moving so he can get a better look at them. All of them are looking shy and uneasy, except Aoshi, who has made no move to hide anything about himself, or his feelings towards the human brat-woman. He wouldn't care, but if they all like her this much, he's going to have to stake his claim more obviously, and he's suddenly feeling much more territorial, suffering a want to slit their throats.

"You talk like you know our feelings, Hiei," Aoshi points out, staring him boldly in the face. It's almost a challenge. Hiei's caught off guard, and he feels his mind stumble a second. "You knew her before we did," Aoshi continues, almost smiling, knowing he's caught the red-eyed fire demon. "Kirin says she was with you when she first got here the year and a half ago, before she went to Raizen and Enki."

It's true. He wonders what to tell them, which truths to hide. He doesn't take long. "I didn't even know she was human," he lies. "She met me while she was traveling back and forth between human world and ours... She followed me here... I don't know why..." Then, to distract the conversation, and pull it away from the two of them, he brings the focus back to her. She's an easy target, and she's not here to defend herself, so why not? "Mukuro sent her away in the most violent way possible when she got here."

"Oh?" Aoshi asks. He didn't work for Mukuro, so he didn't know about this part. Kirin told him what he asked about, and Kirin's lack of desire to talk at all left details out of Aoshi's knowledge. This was one of them.

"She didn't tell me what happened, but when I found her, her back had been broken and so had her neck, and her arms and legs..." Hiei explains. His memory summons the image back far too easily. He nearly gags at the recollection of looking at her face and the arm that had been reduced to mush... And the guilt for not being there to help her.

"What about that eye?" Kirin asks, now.

"What?" asks Sadayoshi.

"Humans don't have dual-colored eyes. I've never even seen blue eyes in the humans, but if she needed both transplanted, she'd have taken both from the same one. One is not hers. Which of her eyes is false?" Kirin insists.

"The purple one is an implant, I guess. I haven't asked. The blue one had burst," Hiei mutters, putting his hands behind his head and looking at the sky, hoping they'll leave him alone.

"I'm sorry I missed it," Kirin says with a dark glee.

"Watching someone like Mukuro hurt someone that weak stops being amusing after the first blow. After that, you just feel sorry for them," he hears himself sighing.

"Did she beg for mercy?" asks Sadayoshi, sounding too pleased at this little piece of history.

"No," Hiei answers simply, defending her honor, and adding to his pride with the recollection. He's so busy wishing they'd leave him alone he doesn't notice the familiar scent of Corpse Flower and blood drifting around until after she speaks up.

"Why would you ask that of a man who doesn't even know what happened?" she asks curiously, sounding almost sweet and innocent.

All five ((I know I've only included four, but the fifth one actually has a personality, and I've forgotten it, and I refuse to completely COMPLETELY annihilate characters.)) of them jump and turns to look at the trap door where she's standing, looking strangely angelic. Her white arms are wrapped around her waist and her hands are on opposite hips, and Hiei can see the chill bumps rising on the flesh, and her bare feet make odd slapping sounds on the rock. Her hair whips around a little in the wind as the storm overhead threatens, and the vines are not helping as much as normal. Her eyes are calm, and she studies the five of them evenly.

"Fine, then," Sadayoshi challenges, sounding threatening and maniacally interested. "What happened?"

She gives a bitter, hurt smile, then moves closer and sits on her feet, shivering a little, covering her arms and folding her feet into the muscle of her legs. He hears her curse something about "cold", but it's short-lived. He turns his head back to the sky and wishes there was a way to discreetly plug his ears. He starts seeking out Yukina with his Jagan eye, but he can't tune Me'ran's voice out. Doesn't help that he doesn't have to look too hard for Yukina; she's still with Genkai, though he can't get the Jagan to see past all the spells around her home.

"All she did initially was flare out her ki. I don't suppose it's any great secret that I'm only stronger than half of most humans unless someone near me is hurt, and I don't know how to use my reiki outside basic shields and healing. All it took was one tongue of her youki to knock me through three walls and out onto the ground. I don't remember much--I blacked out after I hit the first wall. That blow alone broke my arm here, and my leg here, and my other leg here and here, and I think the tumble broke my spine, and I think the impact when I hit the wall with my head first is what killed my eye... When I woke up, anyway, I had completely twisted around at the waist, so my hips and back were both completely on the ground... I didn't even know what happened, until I tried to move and it hurt so bad... Couldn't even tell what happened to my eye, either. It was hanging out onto my cheek, it was real gross. And I bit all the way through my tongue, that was bleeding pretty bad. I wish I'd gotten a picture or something, that would have been more effective."

Hiei can't not turn to look. She's gesturing and pointing half-heartedly, but what he wants to see is the look on everyone's faces. He considers using the Jagan to show them, but they'd know it was him, and he doesn't want to do that.

Sadayoshi's facial expression is one of horror, and Hiei can tell Kirin's surprised. Aoshi looks just plain hurt.

"After that, I survived. Pissed her off even more. So she hit me--I don't even remember what I hit then. That broke my back a little more, or made it crunch. And... Yeah. That broke my remaining arm in two places, and the arm that was already broken, I think my reflexes tried to it use to catch myself, and all the bones came out of my elbow... my leg twisted all the way around, my hip broke, my brow broke here and my cheekbone here... She went to see if I was dead yet, and obviously not. She got pissed and threw me. I think she broke a bunch of my ribs, too... I think I have a few scars." She pauses, then looks over herself a little. "Ah, yeah!" she says, pointing at her elbow where he can indeed still see three thick white lumps of flesh, "where the bones came out of my arm. And," she adds, moving the robe out of the way and lifting one arm, "here, where one of my ribs came through the skin... and..." she pauses and looks over herself again, then shrugs. "I learned that one can scream really well, no matter which lung was punctured by a rib. And. Ah, I remember, the one in my eyebrow, another where the bone came through. She hit me pretty good."

Kirin looks at Hiei, and Hiei looks back at Kirin, but not for long. He tunes out the staring. "You heard her screaming," he says. "I always wondered why you turned around and ran like that." Hiei nods. He hears the sound again, as sharply as the day he heard it first. It was faint, but he remembers every nuance of the sound, the weakness and fear...

Me'ran smiles weakly. "He's the one that told her to _bloody_ stop, I wasn't going to die by her hands. And, by the way, when you asked if I begged for mercy, I'll have you know that I didn't. And, in fact, I've been through worse pain. Though that was the first time I couldn't get back up after getting hurt, and the first time I really needed help," she explains. "And now that I am remembering exactly how much that did hurt, I'm going to go back to bed. If you want to see all of it, you'll have to talk to Hiei, from what I understand, his Jagan can do a neat trick that'll let you look." Then she switches back to English, and she looks right at him. Pain is etched into her face in a way that he's unaccustomed to, and he doesn't think it was the memory of being shattered. _"Sorry to call you out like that,"_ she says first, before she states the real reason she switched languages._"Don't tell me you hate me anymore, Hiei, it hurt my feelings."_ The blue eye's begun to water, but she doesn't let him see that for very long before she turns on her toes and drops back into the palace.

He's frozen, but he pretends he didn't understand, and he rolls onto his side. "Hn," he tells her retreating back. The others ignore him, for the moment, but after she's gone, the chatter starts back up.

"What language was that?" Aoshi asks interestedly.

"English--her first language," Hiei answers bleakly. "Gods, there's finally a second woman in our midst and all of you have gone completely mad over it. First Mukuro, now her. You need mates," he whines. They ignore him.

"I knew Mukuro-sama could be ruthless, but that's..." Sadayoshi says. The look of horror on his face has yet to fade. "Hiei...?" he adds, looking at him. He taps his temple. He doesn't want to ask to see, but he wants to see. So Hiei grants him the memory of the image. Sadayoshi's face twists even farther, and he nearly gags.

"She was aiming for death and didn't realize that the human brat can't die," Kirin says coldly. "I don't think it was ruthless, the bitch probably deserved it."

Hiei doesn't say anything. He knows the real reason, but it's only a matter of time--

"Hiei, why did--"

"Why do I know?" Hiei snaps irritably, glaring at Aoshi, who had begun to ask. "The human brat, whether or not she talks to me, does not tell me everything. You'd be better off asking Mukuro who her first lover was than asking me why Mukuro attacked Me'ran. If I had to guess, and I do, it would be because Me'ran opened her disrespectful mouth before taking into consideration that she was dealing with a murderous tyrant."

"Somehow, I don't think that was it," mumbles Kirin. "Mukuro-sama has always admired disrespect."

"Don't look at me for the answer," Hiei insisted angrily. "You've all spoken with her, you know how infuriating she can be."

At that point, all of then nod in agreement, even Aoshi. Good, good, good, off my back. Go get your own females to obsess over, stop thinking about mine, Hiei demands mentally.

It's quiet for a while. Everyone goes to thinking about whatever they're thinking about, but, apparently, Sadayoshi's having some trouble. "What is it that makes you obsess about her?" Sadayoshi barks at Aoshi. He's stuck on her. Hiei understands. It was something about someone showing them nothing but kindness after their own cruelty. He, easily, treated her worst, even worse than Kirin, and she just helped him... And she's back here, facing the woman that so obviously and openly hates her... And... while she is very easy to hate, she is also easy to love, and she is not the typical human….

There's a long pause, and Hiei figures they don't know, so he tells them, "She's a good person. We haven't met many of those. Mukuro was the ultimate kindness to most of us, and she's not exactly the nicest woman ever, either. She's also close enough to demonic that we can appreciate what she is and get over that she's human."

Everyone stops and Hiei feels eyes on him, but the first one to speak is Aoshi, who says, "You've been thinking about this?"

"A little too much, from what I can tell. Why are you all obsessing over a damn human?" Hiei responds, rolling his head back to look at them.

"Because she's saved our lives after we've tried to make hers hell," Aoshi answers, being the only one willing to admit the truth.

"The good person thing," Sadayoshi confesses. "Why does Mukuro hate her?"

"I don't know," admits Kirin. Hiei rolls his head back to face the sky, and he ignores their banter, now.

Hiei starts thinking a little more. Yeah, she's a good person. She poisoned herself for him, she took a hundred bullets for him, she let herself nearly die from dehydration, twice, even after he attempted to kill her, and those burns on her flesh left scars, bad ones...

He's pulled out of his thoughts when Aoshi suddenly laughs evilly, alerting his senses. Me'ran and evil laughing are not a comfortable combination, but Hiei's comforted when he hears why he laughed. "I want to see her angry."

Hiei catches himself smiling before he can fight it, and he turns his head so they won't see. Yeah, he hasn't seen her angry in a long time, either, bold-faced and surrounded by scarlet youki...

It's quiet again for a long time, for which he is thankful, until Mukuro's youki dies down inside and the five of them are safe to go inside.

* * *

"Hiei?" Me'ran asks softly when he moves into her room. There's a servant standing still with his arms held up over his head, and she's operating on him. She either talked him into letting her play with him, or he hurt himself, or Mukuro hurt him. Either way, she's using a new tool to pinch together the flesh as she heals it.

"What?" he asks. He's wondering how the hell she can stand picking up and holding flesh like that, so her talking to him is distracting.

"Which one of the ones you work with is the one that keeps staring at me?" she asks at the same time she sticks her finger into the wound, making a horrifically disgusting squelching sound. He nearly gags. She looks up at him to see what's taking him so long to answer, and a pleased grin grows over her face as she sees how green he's turned.

"Probably Aoshi. You're bad about making people love you," he tells her, swallowing thickly. God, that's disgusting.

"I don't mean to. Kirin still hates me. Sadayoshi's not happy with my existence, either," she says softly, surprised by the answer. "I heard you all talking about me, but I didn't think it went that far. Aoshi's Jack, right?"

Hiei nods in response to her question, then bothers explaining the rest of it. "You're a subject of interest, and more at-hand than Mukuro--You actually come to interact with us. It doesn't help that you are one of two females, and that you are strong and intelligent, which are something men would instinctively seek in a mate. Also, watch out for them. They want to see you angry."

She laughs quietly and stands up and moves around to the demon's other side. There was a Corpse Vine seed in his chest; she's trying to extract it. "Well, find someone to piss me off, you'll see it."

He grins a little. That's another benefit of Me'ran. She's just attractive when she's angry, not deadly and attractive. Of course, Me'ran would be deadly, but she won't hurt people.

* * *

Aoshi and Kirin both decide to get together and figure out how to make her angry. Aoshi asks Hiei for tips, but he really has no idea how to, other than to just be cruel for no reason. And for days, they puzzle over this, until Hiei finally finds a camera on a human that falls in while he's on patrol. He'd seen them, and Yukina had once talked about how they stole souls, and so he wanted to look at it.

While he was walking amongst Kirin and Aoshi and one of the servants, Me'ran crossed him in the hall, and he seized the opportunity.

"Healer."

"Stop calling me that, fire-bitch," she answers with as much malice as she can muster.

"No. Yukina says that these steal souls, the camera things," Hiei begins, pulling the little device out of his pocket.

Her face twists and her lip curls up in an expression of disdain, possibly even anger. "Ugh, dear Christ, I hate these things," she says. "Yes, the vile things do steal souls, but not in the way you're thinking. It's more like a little sip at your soul until there's nothing left as you continue using it."

Kirin takes it from Hiei and wonders at it (he was also attracted by the words "steal" and "soul" in conjunction), until he presses a button and gets a face full of flashbulb. Me'ran makes a distressed whining sound and moves away while Kirin recovers from the shock.

"The hell is it?" Aoshi asks as he takes it from Kirin, holding it up and marveling at it similarly, only he doesn't press the button.

"It's a camera," Hiei explain. "I don't know how it works, but I know it takes pictures. It's much like television, only it's still pictures, and it's not a demon transmitting them. The Healer and another woman I know say that they steal souls."

"Put down the damn thing, it's evil," Me'ran spits heatedly. The flowers in her hair are blooming out wider, the unhealthier looking petals are coming back to life, but the usually-white lines in the center are turning red. Aoshi points the camera at Hiei, and he moves behind Kirin. Aoshi points it at Me'ran, and she jumps at him and blocks the flash and front window off with her palm. Even Hiei can see that her whole face has tightened and narrowed, and her eyes are blazing. "Not joking. Put it down, Jack, I hate these things." Even her voice has gotten the fire into it, sounding threatening and heated, low and dangerous. If she wasn't a human, or if she actually posed a threat, they wouldn't push her anymore, but they all "know" she's about as dangerous as a kitten, even if she does decide to hurt someone. Well, Hiei thinks, that's what they think. I will be smart enough to leave before she poisons me.

Aoshi grins a little and steps back and shakes her off. "You have seen the damage demons do to one another and you call something that takes pictures evil?"

"I think this is the first time I've ever seen her angry," comments Kirin to Hiei very quietly. "Even remotely."

"Yes, I do, they steal your damn soul, and humans do worse to other humans for dumber reasons. Give that here." She glares hard at Aoshi, and she jumps and tries to take it from him. She's nearly as short as Hiei, and her humanity doesn't help, so when she jumps, Aoshi just pulls it up and out of her reach. Somehow, Hiei's feeling playful, and he lunges for her and wraps his arms around her to keep her still. Aoshi takes his queue and snaps the picture. She growls angrily and takes hold of Hiei's wrist. Shortly after that, he feels his whole body go limp, and she throws him off her, sending the fire demon onto his back on the floor. He can hardly see, now, but he hears both Aoshi and Kirin hit the floor.

"Mother fuckers," she growls. Hiei watches her crush the little plastic thing under her foot, and her scarlet reiki scatters out like broken glass being kicked around, around the whole room while she goes back to healing the human, leaving the three demons to recover on his own.

Kirin recovers first, probably because he's biggest, and he works himself upright slowly, and he knees both Hiei and Aoshi in the backs, allowing each one's movement to return. Sadayoshi's already taken the human back, and Me'ran's sitting near the wall, fuming. Hiei guesses she didn't go back to her room to keep Mukuro from finding her by feel. (Mukuro doesn't know which room is Me'ran's.) Her curled up form is staring out the room, mismatched eyes narrowed in her displeasure, and surrounded by the deep red reiki.

"Worthless fucking bastards," she growls low, sounding ten times as dangerous as before. He's half-worried she's going to move over and kick one of them, but she doesn't. "Be glad I only immobilized you."

"It's just a picture," Hiei grumbles defensively as he brings himself to his feet. He feels remarkably stiff, and he can't find any sore spots or bruises, and he wonders what she did. "You can have your body broken beyond recognition, including the loss of an eye and forgive the woman that did it, but you can't stand a photograph?" he adds, annoyed that she attacked them for something that small and she has yet to hurt anyone else for all the other damages she's suffered.

"Damn fucking straight!" she answers angrily, flaring the jagged scarlet out further. Kirin and Aoshi seem stuck in trances, sitting on the floor and staring at the air above her head. Aoshi's mouth is hanging half-open, and he's sure Kirin's is doing the same thing. He follows their gazes and sees that her reiki is starting to etch angular patterns in the air, even burning the humidity, creating bits of smoke. She apparently gets annoyed with this and throws something at each of them and storms off. Hiei caught his by reflex. The others did, too, but they still seem to be caught in trances, gazing up at the red flares. He's seen that before, but only once before (every other time he pissed her off, he fled quickly, because when he pissed her off, it was well enough to fear retribution). It was beautiful last time, and it's beautiful this time.

"I think we're going to have to make her angry more often," Aoshi whispers.

"I think she's going to kill us," answers Kirin, looking at the scalpel that he only just caught.

"It's well in her power. I'm going to make sure Mukuro doesn't find her," Hiei replies quietly, starting after her, trying to get out of there before Mukuro senses the out-of-control flares of reiki. If she decides Me'ran's pissing her off by disturbing her repose with the surges of energy, it will not end well.

"Hiei?" Aoshi calls as she gets toward the door. He pauses long enough to look back at him.

"What?" he snaps.

"She hasn't helped you like she has us. Why do you protect her?" he asks. Hiei already knows why he's asking. Aoshi wants to know if Hiei's lain claim to her. He's not going to come straight out and say it, but Hiei knows his face betrays him and shows Aoshi his displeasure at the concept of that bastard even thinking of touching her.

"Here is not where I spent all my life, dumbass. I met her before I came here. She's nearly killed herself for my sake a number of times. I owe her," Hiei tells him. Aoshi nods slowly, but he caught the look, and he knows, now. So with that threat eliminated, Hiei moves after her quickly to avoid any more questions.

* * *

"What's your hair look like wet?" Me'ran asks one day while Hiei and she are riding on the front of a patrol beetle. She's shivering and leaning close to him for heat. Hiei's being nice to her and allowing himself to emit more heat than normal, by which she seems pleased.

"What?"

"What's your hair look like wet?" she echoes insistently with a little grin.

"I'm not answering," Hiei tells her with a glare. She smiles broadly. "What's that grin for?" he demands. He's seen that smile a few times before. One was right before she tickled him in the caves while Yuusuke was holding him, the second time was before she scared away his hiccups by launching herself onto him and hugging him, and the third time was last time they slept together and she literally pounced on him and pinned him to the floor. He's now worried she's got something up her proverbial sleeve.

"Nothing," she says quickly. The beetle pulls into its stable, and she leaps off its back and vanishes.

He finds her later, after she's found a new subject to bother. Kirin. "Why do you wear the helmet? What's under there? Is that stuff coming out of the top your hair, or a part of the helmet?" she inquires as she moves close to him. He's nearly as tall as she is, even sitting down, so it only takes a little bit of leaning for her to get close to the visor.

"Hiei, your pet human's bothering me," he reports coldly, ignoring her and glaring straight out at Hiei. He hasn't moved, yet.

"She's not my pet," Hiei says tiredly at the same time she babbles, "I'm not his pet. I'm no one's pet. And even if I was, I'd have to be put down for biting."

Hiei hears Kirin sigh. Aoshi, on the other hand, looks delighted, and comes over quickly. He's never seen her so annoying. He's watching her move--hasn't taken his eyes off her, yet, and Hiei feels Aoshi's eyes glancing at him. He loves that Hiei's annoyed with her, too. Makes him more distant and less protective. Hiei kind of wonders how she'll react if Aoshi tries to get close to her anyway.

"What's that thing made of, anyway?" Me'ran continues to ask, getting up and moving toward Kirin and knocking on his helmet with her fingertips.

He seems to be holding himself back with all he has to not hit her, before he finally warns, "With every tap, you're taking away one more debt to you, Healer, I suggest you stop."

She does so quickly, but she continues looking closely at it. "Is it wood or bone? It looks like a roughly-carved scapula," she mutters under her breath.

"Me'ran, get away from him before he hits you," Hiei warns, seeing the straining muscles in his dominant arm (his left, oddly enough).

She is currently looking at the top of his helmet, having to stand on her tiptoes to do so. She's paying Hiei no heed. "That IS your hair!" she says suddenly. "Holy shit, man, even Hiei's isn't this matted!"

Kirin finally loses patience and lets his arm fly at her. His wrist catches her in the side of the head, harder than he evidently means to. Even he flinches after the blow, knowing he hit her too hard. Her feet actually leave the floor and she hits the floor on her back with a yelp of pain. She sits up quickly, and she puts her hand to the side of her head, turning her head so that the hurt side is down and her face is hidden, but even Hiei can see that she's hurt more than she lets on. "Ow," she whines quietly. She starts looking at the back of Kirin's head, probably to curse at him, but then she closes her eyes and turns her face down so that no one will see that she has a tear building into her blue eye. It hurt her a lot more than even Kirin expected--she curls up, a reaction when she wants to hide the pain she's in, keeping her face down and breathing slowly and heavily to drown the sobs. A small trickle of blood trails down the side of her face from her temple. Hiei's not worried about it--Kirin's Indestructibility has been tested, and it wasn't nearly hers, and she got back up, so the blow was not deadly, and her pain is a fairly common thing. She had it coming, and Hiei did warn her. Despite all this, Hiei has to try to shut out every urge to go to her.

Aoshi doesn't even bother resisting. He moves a little closer for his concern, and he feels a small flame of jealousy spark to life in his chest as Aoshi leans close to her, trying to pull her hand back to look at the bleeding wound in her scalp. "Me'ran-san, are you alright?" he asks as she pulls her hand away from his. Her face remains hidden.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. He just got my temple just right with that wrist guard-thing," she mutters breathily. "I'm tougher than that, don't worry about me," She smiles, then, and her head picks up long enough to look at him. Hiei winces when she sees the already-darkening bruise and the dark blood matting the hair. Vines from the plant are already crawling toward it, looking for somewhere else to take root. Aoshi tries to look again, but she pushes him away gently. "Ass," she adds. She hisses through her teeth and puts her head back down and swallows the pain before she stands back up. The blue eye is bloodshot.

Then, in apology, she pets Aoshi's hair. The flame of jealousy, having been appeased by her pushing away, takes new life and flares violently.

"You look like a troll," she says. "These cute little things, they're so stupid, they don't look like trolls at all," she adds, pulling her hand away from him and returning to his side.

"What's gotten into you?" Hiei finally asks as she curls up behind him, careful to not touch him, but still huddling as closely as she can. She's being kind and not showing any evidence that there is a level to his relationship besides protector. He'd be fine with her showing him more affection, mainly to fend off Aoshi, but she doesn't, and he doesn't want to ask or tell her that.

"Sorry, 'm hyper," she says with a dumb smile. "How many moons does this dimension have?" she asks after a second more, lifting her eyes to the sky. The clouds are hiding the stars and, in turn, the moons.

Hiei looks up, trying to remember. This part of the Makai normally keeps the sky hidden behind the deep red clouds—in fact, most of the Makai is clouded by those. Ariseki does not, but his memory of the trek across the desert is non-accessible, and he can't remember any point in his youth that he saw them… Ah!. "We have three. You can only see them in certain parts of the Makai," he tells her after he remembers.

"One or two of them must be gibbous. I haven't been this bouncy in a while," she hums, bracing herself close to her lover. She's shivering violently--the weather's gotten cold, and he knows she's got much less tolerance for it than anyone else--Makai winters and summers are hundreds of times harsher than anything the human world could ever produce. Hiei allows his youki to surge a little more, warming her as much as he can.

* * *

Later, when Hiei goes back inside, he's left her in Aoshi's company. She's delighted to have someone pay attention to her intentionally, someone that is interested in her words as much as behavior, so he figures she'll leave him alone.

He's wrong.

"Hey, Hiei?" she calls from behind him while he's walking. He hears metal, and he gets concerned, wondering if she's hurt herself or taken something.

He turns around, and then he's doused with what feels like a few tens of pounds of water. His headband is knocked off, and his cloak and cowl are soaked, and his hair falls in a poofy mass, weighed down by the water, and hanging around his ears.

She's already danced out of his range, and he marvels at how he was dumb enough to turn around instead of moving forward and then turning around. It helps ignore the bubble of anger that's taken shape in his inner chest.

"If I ever become one of your kind, you are the first person I'm going to kill," Hiei tells her, removing his cloak and cowl. "I'd hit you now, but that would be unwanted damage."

"Oh, you know as well as I do that even my kind can't kill me,' she says, swinging the bucket cheerfully before she giggles maniacally. "You've seen some try."

Hiei nods absently, then tries to shake his hair dry. She must have had a LOT of water. That bucket couldn't have been that big...

"Your hair looks like Yuusuke's before he fixes it," she says, cocking her head heavily sideways. "Only a little less dorky, because it's not curling up, it's just sticking out. Kinda... Miyazaki-scared art."

"I'm still going to kill you," Hiei mutters. He's raising his youki already, trying to heat himself up enough to dry it quickly. That's three up she has on him. Tickling, hiccups, and wet hair. All he's done is take her picture, and even then, she smashed the camera, plus it wasn't just him... Damned human, she insists on playing these retarded games, he's gonna have to get back at her at some point. He wonders what would happen if he stuck his sword through her chest. It'd piss her off, that's for sure.

"Maybe you should make a goal besides killing me?" she offers. "Since we all know that you can't. Not to be insulting, but you've slit my carotid artery and couldn't kill me."

She turns on her toes and starts to skip away.

"Do you want me to kick her?" Kirin asks as he moves up behind Hiei. "You look ridiculous," he adds politely.

"You'll damage her. She's right, I just need to change my goals," Hiei answers, trying to figure out what he's going to do.

"Isn't damage the ultimate goal?" he asks, confused.

"We want to avoid having to carry her around. A kick to the wrong part of her could result in a comatose healer or beyond-repair limb. I'll see what I can do," he answers.

And with that, Hiei feels both Mukuro and Me'ran, and he hears and feels her dart past him more than he can see it. Her scarlet reiki is dancing on the outside of her, but he's not sure if that's fear or anger causing that.

Mukuro's light red moves past him just as quickly. Kirin looks stunted for a second, then starts moving in the opposite direction while Hiei chases after them.

* * *

Hiei wonders what Me'ran was stupid enough to do, and what Mukuro will do to her if she catches her prey. He tries to catch up, but the two of them are moving so fast that even he can't catch up and keep up. The twists and turns of the halls of the palace are not helping.

And then Hiei hears a strange shriek that he thinks might actually be Mukuro's, rather than Me'ran's. Then he hears a grunt that he recognizes as Me'ran.

"The hell is it with women that they just can't get along with one another?" Kirin asks. He's got Me'ran by the back of her robes, holding her up off the ground, and Mukuro's on the ground, looking like she got knocked down there--one knee folded under her and the other up, supporting the elbow of the arm she's using to hold her head. Looking between them, he's stricken with the oddness of the likeness between his lover and the woman he loves. They even look alike, sometimes--they hold themselves the same way, and the same facial expression he's seen on Me'ran is lighting across Mukuro's face—surprise, pain, and annoyance. Hiei starts walking toward them uneasily. Mukuro recovers as he nears her, and she looks right up at Kirin, putting her other hand on the ground behind her, leaning up, but not standing.

"KIRIN!" she roars. "THE HELL WERE YOU DOING IN MY WAY!?"

"My apologies, Mukuro-sama," Kirin says, bowing low, but keeping the hold on Me'ran's robe and shirt. Me'ran twists and kicks in his grip.

"Let me go, Kirin! She'll kill me!" she cries. "Or try, anyway, doesn't fucking matter, I don't feel like losing my other eye, I'm the only decent healer here!"

"Let me have her, Kirin," Mukuro demands as she stands, holding an arm out with her palm up. Hiei sees the threads of light red reiki edging outside her and towards Me'ran. Me'ran doesn't look fearful, as he'd expect. She looks pissed off and she kicks at Kirin's arm. He's too tall for her, though, and since he has the back of her robes, she can only half-see where she's kicking.

"She's right," Kirin argues with respectful tones, bowing to Mukuro. "She can't afford to lose her other eye, Mukuro-sama, and if she is hurt, Enki-sama may find out and I doubt his wrath will be light--he's fond of the human brat. I will, however, deal with her. Or let Hiei. Shall I?"

Mukuro looks mildly displeased, but she smirks and turns her back, showing him that she's not going to argue.

"Do as you see fit," she mutters. "Don't give her to Hiei. Watch the hands and head," she adds as she walks off. "She needs those." And then, as she walks away, she adds, "Stupid little cunt."

"What did you do to her?" Hiei asks the young woman in Kirin's grip. Kirin doesn't let go of her, and she looks increasingly displeased by this, twisting in his grip unhappily, trying to undo her robes. Unfortunately for her, the fastenings are on her sides, and go well up under her arm to her hips, and are therefore numerous and hard to undo.

"I bumped into her, probably splashed what was left in the bucket on her," she confesses weakly. "Kirin, please let me go," she adds, evidently growing tired of struggling with the frogs on her hips.

"Hiei owes you," Kirin tells her, holding the human woman out towards the miniature fire demon. She kicks anew, trying to twist and bite him. Hiei looks at Kirin, and he questions him with his facial expression. Kirin shrugs, and then holds her out at arm's length. She glares back at Kirin and takes hold of his hand and starts fighting with the pulled-tight frogs at her hips again.

"What the hell?" she demands, kicking a little. "Kirin, put me down!"

"I follow Mukuro-sama's orders, not yours. I just help you as need be," Kirin says simply, coldly, even, sounding more than displeased. He wasn't happy with her for pissing off Mukuro.

"Please put me down?" she requests, looking hopeful, sort of.

"No," he answers. She looks down at him. He grins at her. She narrows her eyes.

"What the hell do you owe me for?" she growls quietly, crossing her arms.

"Dumping water on me."

"Oh, come on!" she whines, kicking again. "Lemme go, Kirin? The hell're you gonna do, Hiei? You took a picture of me, that was getting even!"

Her protests are cut off when Kirin drops her. Hiei catches her and takes her obi (loosing the hold on many of her tools she had tucked in there) from her robes, tie one end to her ankle, and the other end to a finger of a hand sticking out of the ceiling. She twists and kicks again, before she has to push her robe back up and tuck it into her pants' leg. "Oh FUCK YOU!" she shouts. "I'm human, this'll damage me, you know that, right?"

"After you pass out, someone'll let you down," Hiei tells her lightly, admiring his handiwork and barely able to fight a smile.

"What if Mukuro finds me!" she whines, twisting so he's not upside down. She twists as she dangles, wriggling and folding herself up. He made the knot so she wouldn't be able to untie it easily, and even if she does, that's a pretty good drop for a human. She could cut it, but not easily.

"I suggest you stay very quiet," Kirin says laughingly under his helmet.

"Fuck you guys!" she shouts. Kirin follows after the direction Mukuro went, and Hiei goes back to his room.


	85. Choices

_Choices..._

Hiei almost second guessed his decision after she poured water all over his head, but that offense was forgotten when he wound up watching her rebuild the lower half of a human's arm where it had been eaten off, bring a second human back to life after healing the large hole in her head and putting a third's intestines back in, and then had to carry her back to her bed after she fell unconscious.

But he has to tell Mukuro.

Hiei goes into her room and sits in his usual chair. She looks at the fire demon and her brow furrows a little in concern.

"I know that look," she says softly. "What's wrong?"

Hiei doesn't say anything. He can't remember any of the speech he was going to give. He can't remember anything. It falls out of his mouth on accident. "I've chosen Me'ran."

The flare of youki presses him to the back of his chair. Tears fall out of her remaining eye. "WHY?!" she shrieks, louder than she means to. Then she tames her ki, but it's still wild. He can feel it pressing against his body, trying to get substantial enough to even lift him off his seat. Mukuro's calmed voice is still shrill when she demands, "How could you!?"

Hiei looks up at her. He wants to make an excuse. He wants to tell her he was testing her reaction. But he doesn't like to lie. "Because she was there, first. I can find you again. She'll be lost if I let her go," he hears himself mutter. Her ki pressing against his whole body is making it hard to move or breathe. He closes his eyes, all three of them, to keep the dirt out of them. This is beginning to make him sick, just being here is making him feel ill.

She's begun to weep, but she's hiding it, turning her head so that her fake eye is turned to him. The youki pressing against him lifts, but is still heavy about the room. It's not being pushed; it's just beyond her control.

"Leave. Send Takani in here," she commands, keeping her head buried in her bedding.

"He lied. He's not one of her kind," he tells her. "Sending him to kill her won't do any good."

"I am fully aware of that. I just wanted to kill him for being a liar and to get to her."

"I'm not sending him."

She's silent and still as he crosses the room, not even hesitating as he opens and closes her door, locking it behind her. As the door closes, he hears her scream. The sound's even worse than Me'ran's screams. It makes him want to turn around and go back in there and tell her he was lying, he just wanted to hurt her or piss her off, or something, and kiss her and possibly even take her in her bed, but he doesn't. He forces himself forward.

* * *

He goes to Me'ran's quarters. She's sitting with her knees up. There's a plant on the floor next to her, and she's tapping her teeth with her forefinger, probably studying the effect of a plant on her body. He sits at the foot of her bed, and lies on his back after a second. Her feet are under his back, and this seems to catch her attention. She leans forward and looks at him. Her eyes are stormier than normal, and deep green-blue.

"Is everything alright?" she asks him, reaching down and petting his face with her palm. He normally wouldn't allow it, but she seems to be enjoying it, running her fingers carefully, so gently down the side of his face. Her other hand starts touching at his hair, and he closes his eyes, welcoming the sensation after so long without it. Her feminine, blood-scented hands run over his skin so smoothly. He opens his eyes again to see her mismatched eyes gazing at him half-emptily, the little curl on her lips only just visible, and the scars, proof of her love, marring the white glow of her face.

"I chose you," he tells her. He wants to tell her that she's inspiring the most loving feeling he's ever felt, right now, even stronger than when she was caring for him while he was under the Kansei potion, but even if he knew words to say it, or how to, he wouldn't be able to bring them out of himself. A simple "I love you" refused to come out of his mouth, last time, and saying it again wouldn't be enough.

"I know you did," she says with the softest of voices, the most sincere, sweet, happy sound he's heard from her in a long time. "I can feel her temper from here. I could probably feel it back at Raizen's palace if I was still there." Then, she pauses and looks up a second, before turning to face him again. The hair that has been singed off or frayed or cut by her thorns spills out of their living ties and spills to his face, brushing his forehead. "Are we going to run?"

"I can't," Hiei reminds her. He would if he could, but he's honor bound, even if he wasn't law-bound. The feeling of her cool fingertips tracing down the sides of his neck make him uneasy, but at the same time, he loves it. She keeps it down to two fingertips, just down one side, tracing the muscle, not moving to the vein, artery, or trachea.

"Oh, yeah, you're on duty. Should I run?" she asks, cocking her head to a side, moving her knees out of the way and leaning closer to him. She's moved her hand away, down to his shirt, and she pulls the tail out of his belts and pants, and she starts petting at the flesh of his belly.

"You have friends," he tells her. Her touching him is still almost uncomfortable, but at the same time, it feels so impossibly good. Her fingers trace up his waist, over his ribs, touching at the small spot just at his waist that almost brings on a stirring in his pants.

"I think she'll be able to kill them pretty easily," she points out lightly. Her breath is warm on the chest his shirt isn't covering.

"Faced with them, she should decide against murder and just stick to injuring anyone that crosses her path at the wrong particular hour," Hiei answers. He wants to kiss her so badly, but he doesn't want to. She's ruling this, to kiss her now would be to stop her, or start something new, and her reiki tends to flare out of control when they make love, and he wants to avoid being found before Mukuro calms back down.

Looking up at her face again, he sees she's got a weak, hopeful smile on her face. Her currently-sky-blue eye is watering, though he doesn't know why. Then she folds her legs under her and shifts until one of her elbows is bracing herself over him, and her other hand is still on his belly, and she puts her head on his chest, resting the weight there comfortably.

"That's the one thing I don't like about having a demon for a mate," she sighs. "You don't have a heartbeat."

He can't hide the smile, and, inspired by her search, he runs his hand to her chest and rests it on the skin over her left breast. He feels her heartbeat thudding against her ribs, sending little vibrations through his palm, up his arm. His other hand habitually goes to her head, but the thorns cut deep into the flesh of his knuckles as he tries to move his hand through the flesh.

"You're going to have to do something about that goddamned flower," he tells her, looking at the leaking blood on his knuckles annoyedly.

"Am I? Why?" she asks, picking her head up.

"Because it hurts like hell," he answers, showing her the red substance seeping through the break in the flesh. She takes his hand and licks it off, then patches it with a clear substance on her thumb that he guesses came from something out of one of her numerous pockets. She also breaks off chunks of the vine, using her claws to slide through the plant until they break off, thinning it out immensely in her hair, leaving a large one that wraps up the left side of her head, but loosening the rest of it. The long hair, having been tied up so long, still tries to follow the bindings of the vine, curving with where it was, and it's perfectly untangled, he notices. It spills over his chest, setting off a fire of color against his black garb when she lies back down on his chest. He puts his left hand back into her hair, and his right back on her ribs, loving the feeling of her heartbeat against his palm.

It isn't long before he notices her heartbeat slowing under his touch, and her eyes drifting closed, staying that way, then opening again, then closing. She's falling asleep.

He almost wakes her up so she can lie down properly, rather than curled up next to him with her head on him, but he decides that it's just fine to sleep this way, and he kicks his boots off and draws his legs into the bed with him, in the covers, and closes his eyes. Her scent, human, demon, breath, blood, and now Corpse Vine, washes over him, comforting and soothing. Her heartbeat under his palm, strong and constant, her breath under his chin and on his chest, her hands, one resting under her, the other on his belly... He can't stay awake. It doesn't take long before he's in the deepest, most restful sleep he's been in since he lost her a year and a half ago.

* * *

Me'ran falls asleep with Hiei's hot chest under her head, and his arms as around her as they get. It's nice to feel that again.

She wakes up when she feels his body flee the bed. She hits the bed hard before she's fully conscious. She sits up, sensing something wrong, and her eyes search the dark until she tosses out a lampweed's seed, and she sees Mukuro and Hiei pushing each other back. Neither is using their power, yet. She watches for a second, then gets up and starts for the door, but then she decides to wait and see if someone winds up hurt.

Mukuro's pink glow lights the whole room, and then Hiei's blue answers it. Me'ran hits the wall, caught off guard by the energies, and not being strong enough to fight them. Trying to move is more than a little difficult. She tries to push off the wall, but it's like she's ten times heavier. Her arms are hard to move, and she starts to lean up, but it doesn't work. Hiei's thrown back against the opposite wall, and Mukuro rushes at the human girl with a raised fist. She braces herself for impact, closing her eyes and letting all the air out of her lungs and consciously relaxing her muscles, but the blow never comes. She opens her eyes and looks up to see Jack standing there, holding Mukuro back with what appears to be dark extensions of his own arms. His shadow, Me'ran thinks.

"Lady Healer?" he asks. His voice is strained with the effort of holding back the jealous woman.

"I'm okay. Hiei?" she calls, checking to make sure he's okay.

"Get out of here," Hiei barks. She looks at him. His blue is still surrounding him, and he's holding his ribs. The impact probably hurt him.

"Like hell!" Me'ran answers. "You're hurt!"

"I COMMAND YOU TO LET ME GO!" Mukuro roars at Aoshi suddenly, fighting him with a new fervor.

"You're going to kill our most versatile teammate. No," he responds coldly, still straining. He has to adjust his grip six or seven times.

"I can't kill her; I had no intention of killing her! I just wanted to put her into a coma!" Mukuro shrieks, tossing. He's got her arms pinned, now.

"Mukuro-sama, we cannot allow that," he grunts, holding her back. Me'ran sees his feet beginning to slide, and, again, she braces herself.

Jack is thrown against Me'ran. She barely catches him, catching his head in her palm and she braces her arm along his spine, putting her hand in between his shoulder blades to hold him. The sudden weight presses him against the wall. She sees Mukuro starting for her, nearly flying, so Me'ran pushes him to one side, and before she can catch it, she feels an intense impact. Her arm caught it, but this is proven to have been a bad thing. It doesn't hurt, but there's a loud cracking sound when her right arm folds in two. Me'ran tries to push her back, but she's not even close to strong enough. Hiei saves her when his fist connects hard with Mukuro's head and knocks her sprawling. He's still holding the broken rib, but he's okay.

"Traitors!" she shrieks when she recovers, standing up against the wall. "I should kill all of you!"

Another flare of her youki knocks both Me'ran and Hiei at the wall, and she starts for the human, but Jack and Kirin both grab her arms. She is strong enough to knock them away, but she stops and she looks right up at Kirin.

"You're betraying me, too?" she almost whimpers.

"I'm sorry, Mukuro-sama. Your attempts to kill us have put us in her debt. We cannot allow you to hurt her," he answers. Me'ran hears mournful tones in his voice. "I would gladly take care of her for you if I did not owe her for saving me from a broken neck."

Mukuro tears away from them, and walks up to Me'ran. All three men in the room are tense, but she makes no move to hurt her, yet. Me'ran doesn't doubt for an instant that she will, but she's letting them get their guard down, and Me'ran won't run from her, and Mukuro knows that. The human's blue left eye stares into the demoness's blue right one.

"You took him away from me," she whispers. "I'll never forgive you that."

Me'ran wonders for a second how to react, until she finally decides... "You took me away from him. Consider it even. You'll get him back."

She moves, and Me'ran feels the impact of the blow, but she's not entirely sure where, and before she knows it, she's on the floor, and then it all goes away.

* * *

Me'ran goes down pretty quick after the blow to her.. whatever that is. Mukuro moved faster than any of them could react to, and the only things Hiei can do after the blow meets are attack Mukuro, check on Me'ran, or wait. He's stricken with worry. She's never gone down like that, just out cold. She's always at least stayed awake for a few minutes, and if she didn't, she woke right back up...

Hiei and Kirin and Jack... Aoshi (Damn human) remain frozen until after Mukuro stands up and looks pleased. He wants to hit Mukuro, but he doesn't. Mukuro kicks Me'ran hard in the head, sending her to the other wall where she crumples into a heap, then walks away. Kirin and Aoshi move to allow her through the door, but are otherwise still. Hiei goes to Me'ran and pulls her up gently so that her back is resting on his knees. She remains limp, even when he touches at her ribs and face, which are two of the spots she usually attacks him for touching.

"She's out cold," Hiei tells the others as he works her up into his arms and begins to stand up. This is difficult, considering her height, but he deals with it, holding her in his arms easily.

"She hasn't been..." Aoshi says worriedly. He's worried she's going to stay that way for good. "She can't die, but I've seen an Undying go down like that, and she didn't wake up..."

"I don't know," Hiei answers carefully, shifting her in her arms to look better at her. She's not talking, either. "We should probably move her."

Kirin takes her out of his arms--he knows where to put her, Hiei guesses, and he's better off carrying her than Hiei is. Hiei follows him, and Aoshi does, too.

"Hiei?" Aoshi asks softly. He's still worried. Dammit, go away.

"What?" Hiei snips, cutting his eyes at him.

"What do we do?"

"Hope she wakes up," Hiei answers quickly as Kirin leads them down a few different hallways. "She usually recovers. Why are you following?"

"We'll need to check on her. She's just a human," Aoshi says softly, blushing a little.

The room Kirin finds is empty, and it's dark, but Hiei sees enough to know where the bed is. Kirin puts her on it, and he moves next to her. The other two watch him as he sets her arm, then moves back. "And now we wait," he declares evenly.

* * *

Hiei and the other four actually do shifts protecting and watching over her. None of them say a word to one another about it, and no one seems to notice the way he hovers over her for hours at a time on his watch. He hates looking at her like this, he really does. It's so unusual to see her out like this. Well. He's seen her unconscious, she spends a lot of time like that, and he usually loves watching her sleep (despite the guilt), but he always knew she'd wake back up, and even when she was out cold those last times, she didn't look so sick or weak. The year and a half without him wore her out, and the nonstop work and fear of losing him again... Her eyes are dark, and her usually closed mouth is opened and pulling, as if she's troubled. Even the flower in her hair, which has become a part of her as much as her own hands, is closed and half-wilted. He's hoping that's not a sign of how bad off she is physically. Her robes are bunched under her, too. He considers fixing them, but he doesn't. He dares not touch her, especially with her arm still broken.

"Your turn to go topside," Aoshi says from the doorway, leaning against it. He's hiding his ki. He was watching him watch her. Dammit.

Hiei wants to stay, too. He wants to be here when she wakes up. He lingers for a second, not doing or saying anything, until he finally gets to his feet. His legs ache. He wonders how long he's been sitting there, and he wonders how long Aoshi's been there, too.

"Do you think she's alright?" Aoshi asks concernedly, moving into the room.

"I've never seen her go down like that and stay that way," Hiei mutters to him. "There's usually a little more fight to it."

Aoshi scowls. He really does like her. Hn. "I wish I knew her like you did," he mutters as he crosses the room to float over her bed. Hiei really doesn't want to leave, he doesn't want Aoshi to stay here, either, and he really wishes she would just wake the fuck up. Stupid, wretched, goddamned frustrating human.

"Trust me, she's not as great as you think," Hiei tells Aoshi, smirking. "Loudmouthed, self-righteous, needs to be taken care of, human all the way around, she has that incessantly good thing that all humans do, and she's weak."

"Well, I like her," he answers, cutting his eyes at Hiei. He leaves Aoshi there.

* * *

"Hiei, she's awake," Aoshi reports, the next day.

He has to resist the urge to run when he hears it. He drops by the kitchens to get some water, at least, and a little bread, and he starts for her new room.

"Has my arm been set?" she's asking Kirin when Hiei gets to the doorway. Kirin's standing at the foot of the bed with his huge arms crossed, stiff. She's holding his arm, and Hiei notices that he's having trouble even breathing. Hiei scoots up behind him. "How long was I asleep?" she asks. Kirin starts to answer, but then she sees Hiei and lets go of the gigantic demon and looks back at her lover. Kirin moves quickly away from her, growling under his breath, and he sweeps out of the room as fast as he can without running. She ignores him. "Hiei," she offers in greeting, a soft, light tone. To hear it again is almost too nice.

Hiei moves forward with the canteen and bread. She smiles widely and bows to him, sort of, leaving her arm on the bed limply as she takes them from him, balancing the bread on her knee and holding the canteen lightly.

"This is the third day," Hiei tells her. "Your arm's been set, but not healed; you'll have to do that yourself."

She doesn't say a word, but she holds out the canteen until Hiei takes it, then touches her arm until her fingers glow green, and then she reaches for the water in his hand, and she leans back and downs all of it, then falls back on the bed, and reaches into her hair-flower and chews a bit of the stem. She continues to lay there until she rolls onto her side and throws her legs over the side of the bed and sits up.

"Yeah, I need to fix this goddamned flower," she says, pulling up the places it had started to grow and attach to the bed. Hiei waits a second, then, overcome with the strongest feeling of relief he's ever suffered through, something so close to fear that he thinks it is fear, for a second, until he realizes and remembers that he has nothing to fear at all. He leans closer to her, and he kisses her a little harder than he means to, but she'll recover. His mouth crashes into hers, their lips meet hard and Hiei nearly bites her. She kisses him back, just as roughly, taking hold of the back of his head to pull him closer until she takes dominance of the kiss. Dammit! Damn human, she was always better at that than he was. Hiei lets her have dominance, and she, satisfied, releases him and sits back.

"Sorry to scare you," she says emptily, automatically, as if she's not sure that's what she's supposed to say. Hiei looks at her eyes. Even though one of them isn't hers, he can still see the storms behind it. He kisses her again and she looks at him curiously. "Love you, too."


	86. Sitting Duck

Vic! Relax! She's talking about when she dies. It's an inevitable fact that Meru's still only human, and will get old and croak before Hiei even reaches full adulthood. And if you want a Hiei/OC, I have another one. And this one. And once I finish my Kurama/OC, which I'm doing for a change of pace, I will go for another one, I'm sure.

* * *

_Sitting Duck_

Mukuro's bad temper continues hurting everyone. The others have to step in and save Me'ran occasionally, just as she has to step in and save them. Apparently, they don't do half the job protecting each other as they do protecting her. Probably because they actually owe her the help. This doesn't mean that they're not growing more and more angry at her, because, logically, Mukuro's having this fit because of her. They don't know why she's pissed; they just know she's pissed, and it wasn't until Me'ran showed up that she became pissed.

It's been nearly a year since she first got here. The attacks go from every day to once a week, to once every second week, then once a month. Every now and again, she'll be ultra pissy (probably on her period, Me'ran usually thinks darkly) now and again and try to kill everyone, no matter how long it's been since she last hit someone. A year remains of her and Hiei being stuck here.

"Someone needs to stop the psycho-bitch," she mutters, healing Aoshi's sprained hand. He tried to catch her fist. It worked, but it sprained his hand. All she has to do is give his hand a little prod to push the muscle back into proper place (it moved a little) and heal the stretched muscle.

"It's your fault she's doing it at all," Kirin growls from behind her. He's got his arms crossed, and she hears undertones of rage in his voice. She shrinks her head down into her shoulders to hide herself, scared by his sudden appearance.

"Hello, Kirin," she says lightly. "If everything had gone right in my life, I'd have died a month after my birth, or at the very least, I'd be in human world, across the world from the portal to here that I know of, sitting at my computer wishing this stuff existed. I didn't intend for Mukuro to hate me. The only reason I know why she hates me at all was because I've been around human and demon nature alike long enough to tell. I'm sorry that she does, and I'm sorry she's taking it out on you guys."

"And why is she so pissed at you?" he demands, moving closer to her, looming over her, looking very dangerous.

"It's dumb," she sighs, looking up at him as she finishes the fixing the muscle in Aoshi's hand.

"It's for a boy," Kirin states, letting her know he knows that much. "I've got it half figured out; I want to hear a real explanation."

He rocks onto his heels, uncrossing his arms. Aoshi gets up and leaves, not interested anymore. She starts to stand upright with every intention of walking away, but she's cut short when Kirin takes hold of her robes and picks her up just enough to keep her helpless off the ground. He's not attempting to threaten her--he just doesn't want her to brush him off the way she does Sadayoshi when he asks questions.

"What's going on?" he asks her, turning her so that she's facing him.

"Huh?" she asks, looking dumb.

"Why does she hate you? Who is "he" that you stole from her? What's the situation? She's hated you since before you even came here, and you return here and make her worse--I've been tolerating it long enough, I am tired of the secrets. She refuses to tell me, but I can beat it out of you. That Undying thing doesn't keep you from pain." he growls darkly.

Me'ran grins dumbly. "I don't think he'd appreciate me telling you any more than I would like telling you," she singsongs hopefully. She tries to kick lightly, reaching for the ground, but he just picks her up higher so she's looking him in the face.

"Tell me, or next time, I'm going to watch and see what she tries to rip out next time she's alone with her and I'm near enough to save your ass. We're almost evened out; I wouldn't want the score to settle if I were you. No, I'd rather stay one up. You can't forget that I don't like you either, and I'll remember the little offense if you refuse to tell me. Humans only receive my protection because I've been charged with that duty, and because you have helped me more than I've helped you."

A very convincing argument, Me'ran decides, and she smiles at him cheerfully. "Alright, since you put it that way... The boy is... Hiei. Don't laugh." He doesn't even begin to. Instead, he lets her down, and then puts a hand on her shoulder and pushes to make her sit down, then squats in front of her.

"I thought as much--it was him or Aoshi, and it's not Aoshi," he mutters. She hears him stumbling with his words, next, trying to pull the story out of the hat. She takes the hat from him and starts pulling the story out for him.

"I fell for him back in Human World, when he was there," she explains. "That's why I followed him here. She sensed it, that I loved him, and tried to kill me before she knew how hard I am to kill. She loved him, too, see, and I was a threat--I was in the way of her and Hiei. And then... after she tried to kill me, I had to leave. Obviously, Hiei and I spent a year apart, and I wasn't a concern anymore, because even if I wasn't dead, I wouldn't come near her, and he wouldn't seek me out. Until time for the tournament, when he and I had a chance to get close again without getting ourselves killed."

"And you got yourself sent here," he finishes for her, sounding a degree angrier than he did. "I was there when we got the letter."

She shakes her head, speaking her defense now. "No, no, no! Actually, I was quite satisfied with waiting to die in that tower back at Raizen's palace. Everyone else worried, though. Then a loudmouth told Enki--don't worry about hunting them down, I already took out revenge--and Enki sent me here. I didn't want to, especially not after the messenger you nearly killed died on my fucking table and had to be brought back to life."

"How'd you know I did that?" he asks, stunted for anything else to say, if she had to guess. His voice is curious, now, no longer pissed or any form of it.

"She'd've killed him faster," she tells him knowledgably. "My experience with her attacking told me that there's no way anyone could have survived running four days after an attack from her. That, and it was a flesh wound, a stab-wound."

"Could have been Aoshi," he points out.

"He doesn't attack like that. You stabbed him with that," she says, pointing at the horn on his helmet.

He nods knowledgably, then rises to his feet again and crosses his arms, nudging her onto her back with his foot out of spite. "Don't try to keep secrets," he warns as he turns. She's quiet and waits for a second as he walks away, staying on the floor.

Then there's a slight rumble in the air, and then there's an impact, and she slides backwards on the floor after Kirin's shoulder pads and head and the rest of him collide with her. She shifts her weight and holds his head and shoulders so that he won't be hurt, even if she does hit something. And she does, after a second or two, though she's not sure what. She looks up to see Mukuro glaring down at her, standing over Kirin. She tries to get away, but Kirin's resting on her legs, and he's too heavy for her to move.

"Turned my own men against me?" she demands in the softest, firmest, scariest voice she's ever heard. Me'ran cringes under Kirin's weight when she hears it. She wants to get away from him before she does something to him for being traitorous, or before she does something to her.

"No, they still love you, but they owe me 'cos you keep hurting them," she says in the meekest way she's ever managed to. She's scared, but she doesn't let that show. Instead, she places as much defiance she can in the feeble tone she's managed to spit out.

Me'ran feels herself hit the floor shortly after her head starts to hurt really bad. She almost saw Mukuro attack, that time. However, she's not under Kirin's dead weight anymore. Me'ran decides that she's going to hurt her anyway, so she finishes her statement. "I think it has something to do with the fact that you'd hit them for nothing, and I'd be kind enough to help them after they'd hit me for nothing. So really, the end of it is not hurting people." Mukuro waits for her to finish, then punts her into the air, into the ceiling. Me'ran bounces off the ceiling and hits the floor again, carefully landing on her feet. Mukuro's got Kirin by the underside of the helmet, and she throws him at Me'ran. She ducks and catches his ankle, and lets him slow to a halt, and she keeps him from tumbling. Mukuro moves quickly enough that Me'ran can't see, and she starts to hit her again. Me'ran puts up a shield, and she's pressed to the wall. It knocked the wind out of her, but she keeps pissing Mukuro off, mainly as a reflex. "Kirin doesn't even like me," she continues. "He just owes me for healing him after every time you've hurt him. You hear how sorry he is every time he has to stop you from tearing me to pieces. And. You know, I would much prefer to fight you somewhere that I didn't have something hard stopping me so I could absorb a little less impact," she whines. Mukuro punches at her again. She blocks with another shield. Her arms give, and they fold into the walls behind her, and Mukuro headbutts her. She opens her eyes and she's on the floor, now, sitting against the wall. Mukuro's still here, though.

"Dammit, you woke up." The red-headed demoness kicks the human. "Why-" she adds, kicking her again, and throwing in a kick with every word to follow--"won't--you--just--stay--down!?"

Her ribs are broken, she surmises. She doesn't feel anything, and she can't breathe, yet, so she's not sure, but the way Mukuro's kicking the human girl, Me'ran's broken as hell by now. But she talks anyway. "I. Can't," she sputters. She kicks Me'ran, round house this time, and Me'ran tumbles across the ground and when she stops tumbling, she rolls onto her hands and knees, refusing to stay down. It hurts. But, fortunately, she's done.

Me'ran hears her attacker walking away, so she goes to Kirin to make sure he's in one piece. She's reduced to crawling, because it hurts to get up, and it's easier to breathe this way. She sits down next to his enormous heaving chest and Me'ran pulls the cracked armor off his chest and she heals his broken ribs. She starts for his mask, but he wakes up, suddenly, sitting up and knocking the human girl backwards. A cry of pain pulls itself from her lungs, and she can't stop it as it flees her mouth. He looks at her, and then fixes the armor on his chest back into place.

"She hit me like I was..." His sentence drops off, and Me'ran sees his yellow eyes gazing hard at her. She stares back at him, then wills herself to get up, trying to ignore how every heartbeat is causing intense pain to overtake her whole chest.

"Well, you were a sitting duck, really," Me'ran says quietly. She reaches for his helmet, or at least his visor, but he knocks her hand away harder than necessary (nearly breaking her wrist), and he lifts it off his head easily. The hair that is normally tucked into his helmet falls halfway down his back, veiling her view to his face, but she pulls it back. His forehead has a developing knot. While she heals that, she studies his face. Scarred to hell, gruff, almost evil, but more hurt, and confused. The expression is not one she'd expect. She heals the scrapes on his chin while she's at it, and the scratches under his jaw from where she accidentally scratched him.

"A what?" he asks Me'ran as she heals the fractured disk in his neck, suddenly registering the "sitting duck" comment. She smiles a little.

"A sitting duck. It's saying you were an easy target," Me'ran explains as she pulls her hand away. She continues looking him over, though, until she's satisfied and lies on the floor.

He nods a little and he watches her work to heal the rest of him. "I owe you another debt. Dammit. I'm never going to be caught up at this rate." After she lies down, he pulls his helmet back on quickly, as if wanting to hide his face, and stands.

Me'ran looks up at him and realizes how much it hurts to breathe again, and she pats the air. "Nah, nah, no debt," she tells him. "In fact, you won't owe me for the story, either, if you give me a lift back to my room and let me sleep for the rest of the day, or at least until it stops hurting to breathe."

He stares at her a second, then sweeps down and picks her up gingerly, careful to not hurt her, and carries her in his hands, making as little contact as he can with her. He takes her to the room he knows is hers. Hiei's waiting on her bed, curled up at the foot, apparently asleep. When Kirin pushes open the door, Hiei sits up, then looks right at them.

"Why the hell don't you just go home?" Hiei barks sharply, pissy that she's hurt again. "It would make the pain go away."

"Pain doesn't--AAGH. Ow, don't do that!" Me'ran started to say that pain doesn't bother her, but he touched her ribs. He did it on purpose. He knew that was where she got kicked, because there's a footprint on her robe, and he wanted to prove a point.

"Just checking to see if she broke you again," he reports, lying with a grim look on his face. Kirin puts her on the bed, then looks for a second before shaking his head and walking away. Me'ran hears him muttering clearly something about insane women.

"You know, you've got another year before we can go," Me'ran tells Hiei as she tries to breathe without hurting herself. He's standing next to the bed, staring down at her with crossed arms. This lightens his spirits a little, and he drops the crossed arms and jams them in his pockets.

"I'm counting down the days," he finally sighs as he sits down on the side of her bed.

"Are you?" she asks him with a soft laugh.

"I have to get you out of here," he explains, now, standing back up and pacing a little around to the other side of the bed. "Open your robe; we'll need to make sure your ribs aren't sticking out."

"You're just looking for easy access," she jokes, smiling up at him. He touches her ribs again. She writhes away from his hand, then undoes her obi and opens the loose fabric. Her ribs are still in place, thanks mainly to the sarashi wrap. "Why do you have to get me out of here?" she asks now.

He continues examining her, then sits back. "I'd hate to ruin your good looks," he answers with a snide smile. He touches at a spot in her scalp. It's tender as hell, she notices when he touches it, and she pulls away. "Ow." He scowls at her. She smiles back at him.

"You know, Mukuro's beatings really just drain the hell out of me," she complains quietly. "I think she might be sucking my ki when she hits me more than anything."

"You heal faster than normal? Faster than you used to?" They're not questions as much as statements, but she knows they're meant as questions.

"Yeah."

"You're healing yourself subconsciously," he says with a light sort of look on his face, somehow friendly, in the coldest way possible.

She smiles a little, then messes with his hair and stretches out. He moves up so that he's sitting next to her head, so she scoots and curls so her head is in his lap. He plays with her hair a little, the parts she pruned the vine away from.

"Your hair's gotten really long," he says softly, probably not meaning to say it aloud.

"Yeah, I know," she answers slowly, opening her purple eye and looking up at him. "Does yours not grow?" It's never occurred to her. She looks up at the bits of hair that usually hang down a little, his bangs, and touches at them. The strands are damaged to the touch, like they've been burned or something. All things considered, it's probably had worse. He never bothered taking care of it, she supposes, and even when he did, he's got a real bad habit of playing with fire. She giggles at the idea, forgetting that it's only a thought and she ought to keep the giggles to herself. "We're out of here in a year, right? That's what I said, right?" she asks.

"Yes," he agrees as he nods. Something in his face looks worn; probably the thought itself tires him.

"Cool." Me'ran says first. Then she leans up to nuzzle her face to his, and she licks his cheek next to his ear before she puts her body back down on the bed and lies on her belly, having to adjust several times to allow herself the ability to breathe without crying out. "I sleep, now," Me'ran tells him. He nods, and she feels his hand on her back. She's discomforted, so she swats his hand away. He looks hurt a second, then shrugs it off, and he lies next to her, not touching her, but his body warmth washes over her, almost too much, just enough to lull her to sleep, until she can't fight it anymore, and she passes out.


	87. Outta Here

_Outta Here_

The last year passes.

Me'ran spends what she's not working asleep, waking up when someone wakes her up to help a human or one of the team members. Hiei and Jack usually get her to the kitchen, as well.

The flower in her hair has finally gone completely beyond her control and has started to grow out over her whole body. After it started growing around her shoulders, she started to worry about it, but it allows a surprising amount of movement--In fact, the plant itself has a brain of its own, she thinks, because when she moves and threatens to pull it apart, it actually moves and lets go. She does have to keep the thorn growth down to keep from hurting people or ripping her clothes. It is, however, easily moved off her so that she can dress and undress and bathe and the like.

Mukuro stops fighting—Me'ran thinks Hiei and she had a talk--and she calms down. She eventually has to start avoiding Kirin because, while he did appreciate her, he did not like her. Sadayoshi, too--He was nice initially, but he didn't stay that way for long. After Mukuro stopped trying to hurt anyone, the debts to her were repaid and that was it for the kindness.

She's dreaming, now, about little black-haired, blue-eyed children, for some reason, and she as good as wakes up screaming in terror. Her eyes snap open, and she realizes she's holding a wrist in her hand. Two bright red eyes are staring down at her.

"Yuusuke's going back to Human World, today. Do you want to go?" he asks her. Her stuff's already gathered into a large cloth or bag or something tied on two ends. She stands up and pulls her traveling robe on, fastening the frogs on the sides.

"Not even saying good-bye?" she asks him. He watches her, then scowls.

"I don't like saying it," he says. "Don't you have any shoes? I never found any."

"I don't like shoes. I try not to wear them," she tells him, picking the bag-thing up over her shoulders. "Are we going to the Ningenkai?"

He pauses, then nods. "The hag will want to see you. The others will, too, but Genkai is the only one you need to talk to."

"Why do I need to talk to her?" she asks him as she leaves the front gate of the palace.

"I don't know. It's a feeling. I can't ask my Jagan, it can't see into her compound."

She drops her stuff off at Kurama's former den, and then they use Hiei's Jagan to track Yuusuke down, deciding to give chase after him, rather than risk running into him later. Neither she nor Hiei really want to see anyone. She takes a couple of plants with her. She figures that if Genkai wants to see her, it will be health related, so she puts the potted plants in a backpack with which she used to use to carry her stuff with her back and forth from Demon World to Human World.

She and Hiei follow Yuusuke through a portal. They wind up in Japan near a train station. Yuusuke hesitates after emerging through the portal in the aged fallen tree. Me'ran and Hiei both wait a few minutes, and they hang out on the roof, waiting to see which one Yuusuke intends to board.

On the walk to the road to Genkai's, Yuusuke keeps pausing to sniff the air. She and Hiei are following in the trees along the path, and both of them are shielding their reiki and youki, so he shouldn't be able to sense them.

"He probably smells that damn flower," Hiei spits.

"He probably smells basically everything I'm carrying around. It all smells really strongly. Hell, if the guy I had replace me at Raizen's did anything right, and Yuusuke managed to get hurt, he'd be used to the smell," Me'ran argues, not exactly defending herself, just making malicious conversation.

She gets a bad kick off and her foot hits a branch on the way over to the next perch. It hurts. A lot. And starts bleeding and swells up. She takes hold of it and hops up and down, holding her damaged foot. Hiei rolls his eyes.

"Damn human," he curses with a smirk.

"Shut up! Ow!" Me'ran whispers. Yuusuke looks up towards her, but she's out of his sight by the time he even stops moving.

* * *

"What happened to your foot? Why didn't you come in with the rest of them?" Genkai demands when they see her. She's standing at the top of the stairs, watching the rest of them play on the beach. Yuusuke is on his way down to make his big show of coming back to Keiko. Koenma's still here, but Botan's down there.

One look at Genkai tells Me'ran all she needs to know about the old woman's current condition. She can practically smell the decay, and she's been around so many people at their ends that she knows already what it is and how long she has. Me'ran wonders if she knows exactly, but she doesn't say anything about it. There's something peaceful in her face that's already telling her that she is aware of it, and is just fine with it.

"I kicked something. I don't like shoes. Ah, here," Me'ran says, reaching into the bag to get the two potted plants she took from her collection. She hands one to Genkai who examines it slowly. "That should help for pain..." Me'ran explains. Genkai nods, then smirks. Me'ran hands her the second plant. "And then... Sleep... Here. I don't want to prescribe any particular dosage, 'cos you're so small and human, but you're a big girl and Yukina can help. The leaves aren't that strong, but the. I forgot the word." Me'ran points at the stems. "There, the stick-things. You can use it for stronger medicine if you ground it up and put it on the vein under her tongue or chew on it. If all else fails, you can... You know what, here," Me'ran says, reaching into the pockets of her robe and handing her a couple of balms. "Just a little under your nose helps you sleep. And then the pain one, just a dab on the forehead," she instructs, pleased at the pleased look on Genkai's face. The old woman looks up at her former student and smiles.

Koenma looks at Me'ran, then at Hiei at her side, and he looks over Me'ran again, looking particularly hard at her neck and chest and what of her arms he can see. "You've had a rough time, huh?" he asks softly. "I'm sorry I got you into all this." And with that, he bows. Me'ran picks his head up, then smiles at him cheerfully.

"I love it," she tells him. "I'm needed, I'm loved, and I've found where I belong. It's wonderful."

He smiles dumbly, then rubs the back of his head. "I'm kind of glad things are working out for you," he says in his high voice. "Even though you did fall for Hiei." Me'ran takes the offense lightly, and chuckles, then hand him a tub of balm from her other pocket. It's a chemical produced from a poisonous plant similar to poison ivy of the Ningenkai. "What's that?" he asks.

"Lip balm. Your lips are chapped," Me'ran tells him.

"Oh, thank you!" he says. Idiot. He puts his finger in it and spreads it over his lips. He has no idea why she's smiling like that. Me'ran ignores him, now, and turns back to Genkai, kneeling in front of her so she's at eye level.

"Genkai, I already know when, do you want me to be around for it? I could make it easier on you, I think. I've gotten a lot better. And what kind of burial do you want?" Me'ran asks sweetly, cocking her head to a side. She doesn't have to try too hard to fight the tear building in her blue eye. Genkai looks so relaxed already.

"I think Botan can do enough for me," she says. "And I never was one for narcotics. Death ain't so bad, I've done it before." She pauses. "But whatever that flower is, could you plant that on the tombstone?" she requests, reaching out for one of her arms and pulling it toward her. The purple vine has wrapped itself around her forearm, and she's studying that.

"Why?" Me'ran asks her. "And it grows out of the body itself, so I'll have to plant it in your corpse. It'll come up out of the ground. I'll even feed it fresh blood or a fresh corpse, if you want," Me'ran offers lightly. She shrugs.

"It's pretty," she answers with a grim smile. "Let it die when it's ready to." She looks up at her face, now, smirking, looking pleased, but then she scowls. "What the hell happened to your eye?" she demands. "Can't you take care of yourself enough to not get a whole eye gouged out?"

"I lost it!" Me'ran argues playfully. "I lost it, and then couldn't find it, so I had to get a new one! I like it, why don't you?"

"Damn brat," she spits. She smirks again, then hops up and slugs Me'ran in the upper chest so hard she falls on her ass. "Wish I'd had some more girls to train. Those dimwitted boys were pains in the ass."

"Love you too, Genkai," Me'ran hums, sitting up and patting her on the shoulder with the back of her hand.

Genkai smirks up at her as she stands up.

"Are you ready to go?" Hiei asks her as he pulls on her sleeve.

"Yeah. Let's go home," Me'ran says.

Genkai gives Me'ran a farewell punch in the shoulder, and she returns the favor with a bit of flower with a thorn left on it. Koenma gives Hiei and Me'ran a farewell bow, not even noticing that his lips are already swelling. Then the two of them start back for the gateway that's been set up.


	88. The Ending

Hello. It's been a trip, hasn't it? Why are you still reading this? It's not even good.

This is the end. Yay. Thank you for sticking with me. Also, thanks for the -goes to look- one hundred reviews, and I'll see you all later. Maybe.

_The Ending_

"Ow," Me'ran hisses under her breath. Hiei taps the hilt of his sword with two fingertips impatiently. "Shut up," she tells him. "I'm working on it, and it's burned me three times, I don't want to hear it." He clears his throat in response. She looks up at him and glares. He pushes the hair in her face out of the way, and puts it under the vine. She nips at his hand with her teeth before she goes back to working. The wires she's trying to hook together are going into the calluses in her skin, and they're not electrocuting her, they're just burning. Until, finally, the thing makes a soft noise, and the walls stop crackling with the electricity. "There."

He nods, then moves forward. Me'ran follows him. He looks back to her and lets her ahead of him, past the hallway, and she starts hopping on the third tile in the rows to the other side of the room. He follows her.

This has been her life for a while. Me'ran follows him around, helping anyone that asks for her help, or him, and she plays trap-master, ninety eight percent of the time. He loves it. Right now, though, he's leading her to a surprise. Or something. He has something to show her, in any case.

"How much farther?" Me'ran asks him.

"Run as fast as you can to that doorway, and break the door down. The ceiling'll fall when the floor senses your weight," he says, pointing. "I'll follow when the ceiling picks back up."

"Why can't you do it first?"

"You can't die. If the ceiling falls and you haven't broken the door in, then something will save your ass. It'd kill me."

Me'ran nods, then shoves him gently, then presses herself to the wall with her feet on the opposite wall, she scoots down the hall, and then she gets to the door. "This door, right?"

"Yes," he says, looking amused. Me'ran nods, then hits the door with her elbow hard enough to open it. She twists and swings herself into the doorway, and she hits the floor. Hiei is in the room after a second, and he moves into the dark of the room.

"I owe you, what, three gifts? In return for the ones you've given me?" he inquires, looking up at her, looking totally sincere.

"Huh?"

"Christman. Or whatever you called it."

"Ah, yeah," Me'ran mutters, rubbing her head. He reaches over and lights a fire.

The room is beautiful. There's a bed, and there are trellises up the walls with various vines and plants around the room, and the ceiling is either glass or just magically see-through, and there's only this door, and there are no windows. Me'ran doesn't fight the smile.

"You had Kurama do the plants?" Me'ran asks him. Her voice almost refuses to work.

"I had him tell me what to do. He made me do it myself. The dirt was under my nails for months," he whines, looking under his nails. "I set up the traps, too, and I had Takani and Aoshi and all those others that like you so much help out."

"Thought you knew more than you should have about the traps," Me'ran says, kissing him. He kisses her back, and she pounces him and pins him to the floor. He cries out in surprise, and kisses her back, then rolls on top of her.

"So, when are you going to go home?" he asks her, almost curiously.

"This is home," she answers, confused.

"You never want to return to human world?" he asks, looking genuinely surprised.

She smiles and shakes her head. "I'm sure I'll be dead before I decide I want to."

He scowls a little, and then speaks again, surprising her. "What do you want?"

Me'ran, confused at all this from him, cocks her head to a side to ask him without talking. He doesn't get it, so she echoes, "What do I want?"

He rolls his eyes. "Yes. What do you want? You're a twenty-four-year-old human woman, and you want something, like any other creature. What do you want?"

"Has it been five years already?" she asks, trying to remember if it's really been that long. Nineteen when I went to Mukuro, three years there, and... two winters since then, with autumn coming again, now... That's incredible!

"Yes," he sighs impatiently.

Me'ran thinks for a second, and then smiles again. "I want time to go slower. So I can be with you forever," she says lamely, kissing him. His mouth curls up, and he lies next to her on the floor, and the two of them lay there together.

"I love you, Hiei."

"I love you, too, Me'ran."

"Good to hear."

Me'ran sits up and climbs onto the bed, which is actually more of a hammock or a swing, she notices when she looks at it, dangling from two points on the ends with chains extending from a center point to each corner. Hiei looks at her, and she smiles again.

"That smile's frightening," he says. "I haven't seen it too many times before, but when I do, it's frightening."

"That's kinda funny, Hiei," she chuckles back.

"Why are you smiling like that? You've got something planned, or you're hiding something."

It's true. She is hiding something, sort of. She skipped her period, her breasts have swollen and hurt, she can smell everything, when she isn't eating, she's throwing up, and she gets exhausted painfully easily, and it's not like either of them have been careful at any point. She's lucky it didn't happen before now, actually.

"Well, I'm not exactly hiding it, but I was trying to decide when to tell you."

He looks at her, eyebrow quirking, and a concerned look spreading onto his face.

"First, I have to tell you, my love, that I can do it. I don't need you. I would like it very much if you were there, but if I have to, I can take care of everything on my own."

"The hell is it?"

"'m pregnant, love."

All the color leaves his face, leaving a sickly olive color, and she smiles again, and covers her mouth before she laughs, entertained by the look on his face. His mouth opens, then closes, then opens and finally begins to stutter. "How... how... why... C... What..."

"Well, it's not like we were careful. We lucked out it didn't happen before now." Me'ran, in an attempt to make him feel better, brings his face close to hers and kisses him gently. He almost doesn't kiss back. "I told you, baby, I can take care of it myself if I need to. All I need is you close to me; you don't have to do any work regarding the runt, okay?" And they kiss again. "You don't have to worry about it," she adds reassuringly.

He looks up at her concernedly, then leans forward suddenly and presses his mouth to hers, hard, and then climbs into the large bed next to her, and lies on his back and stares at the sky.

"Scared?" she teases.

"Hn."

"Me, too," she answers, patting his chest and her belly at once. "We'll do fine. I'll be okay. Do you want...? Um, I mean, I can carry it with us, no matter what, I'm not stopping my current lifestyle because of a baby that'll outlive me by more than a hundred years. You won't--"

"Stop that, it's mine, too," he snaps, finally, reaching out and pulling her by the back of her shirt to lay down with him.

"Oh, good," she breathes, relieved. He kisses her again, and then stares at the ceiling, or, more specifically, the sky beyond it. She just kisses him again and nuzzles his face, then pulls him closer to her and rests there and drifts to sleep.


	89. Epilogue

Meru is clutching at her swollen belly, kneeling, but leaning forward over the foot of her bed. Hiei knows this because when he left, that's what she was doing, and it's what she's done every time. There are three children, and this will be the fourth. He can occasionally hear her crying out, but he is still busy with the first three. Twice, he hears her screaming something along the lines of "You son of a bitch, goddammit", but he knew full well that she has every right to call him that. If _he_ had to go into labor, much less haul that brat around for as long as she has, he would have taken his own life, or ended the pregnancy.

"Dad, why is she screaming so many cusswords?" asks the eldest one, who is sitting on the ground with his back on the wall. "Even she isn't this bad. Most of the time." He knows that he's supposed to be outside, and he knows why, but he is annoyed with having to be. His name is Kazuo, meaning "first born son", but he's been nicknamed "Kaze". He is eighteen. He only looks the human relative thirteen or fourteen, which is surprisingly old. He is only a half-demon, though, so Hiei can't expect much different. Hiei is very fond of his son, who is a spitting image of him, with the exception of the blue eyes in the almond-shaped sockets and the fact that his hair hangs down around his head.

Hiei doesn't know how to answer that, for a second, not sure how much detail he should go into. Kazuo's old enough to learn the mechanics, but it is probably better that Meru explain this to him, since she actually knows everything about it. So he settles for, "Well. It hurts. A lot."

"Where's it come out? I've seen her cut open people, but she can't do that for herself."

"No, she can't, and that's not how babies come out. People aren't supposed to be cut open," Hiei answers. "Your mother is a barbarian and doesn't know how to keep her sharp things to herself."

"Belly-button, then?"

"You'll find out. Ask her."

Kazuo smirks. Hiei smiles back and musses his son's hair and turns his head back to the girls.

The girls are both climbing the big tree in the front yard. Rose is the elder (Me'ran often talks about how much Rose looks like her.) at nine years old (she looks five or six, according to Meru, though Hiei thinks she looks right for her age). She usually acts younger than that. Aiko the second girl, being six, is still practically in diapers, though she learned potty training quickly. She looks like both of them, and therefore neither of them. Round red eyes, long blondish reddish brownish hair that sticks off her head in odd cowlicks where it won't stay down, with dark skin and wide, wise eyes. Her nose was distinctly Hiei's, but her chin was definitely Me'ran's, and they often get into little play arguments over whose mouth she has, since Me'ran and Hiei both have small, round mouths.

The sounds Hiei has been listening to have stopped. Hiei peeks in with his Jagan, then rises to his feet. "Kaze, keep your eyes on your sisters."

He finds Meru in the bath, sitting at the bottom of the tub with the shower that she built over her head running, cleaning the baby girl up. She's already thrown out whatever she was kneeling over, and she is now cradling the baby in her hands. It was about the size of a small cat. She was very small.

"Another damn girl, huh?"

"Of course," Me'ran says with a smile. "Someone else for the big boy to watch over. If she were a boy, there'd be way too much competition."

Hiei silently agrees, then sits next to the bathtub. There is nothing uglier than a newborn, but at the same time, he is absolutely in love with this child at the moment. Her wide red eyes aren't seeing anything, but something he notices...

"Meru, this one doesn't look a damn thing like any of the other three. Even they looked sort of similar."

"Are you kidding? Rose and Kaze both look completely different," she says, giving Hiei a look.

"Her hair," he says, pointing at the minty-blue curls on her head. "She does have the round red eyes, but they're not ours. They're." And he stops, as he realizes exactly what she looks like.

"Yukina's," Meru says with a grin. "She takes after your family."

"What's her name?"

Me'ran pauses a second and slumps in the water. Hiei moves to turn it off. He reminds himself, as she has since last week, when she suspected she would be due soon, that she will be sore for the next while. A month or so, if the last one was anything to base the idea on. She wouldn't even get up or walk for the next couple of days. The first time, she actually laid in bed for a week, sleeping, waking only long enough to feed the baby and eat.

The silence reigns.

"We didn't plan the name for this one, did we?"

"We never planned the names," Hiei reminds her. "We decided that whichever of us had a name at the time of the birth and the other liked it, we'd go for it. Though, you did not listen to my objections for Rose's name."

"That is because you were bitchy 'cos of Kurama. But. I'm out of names," Me'ran chuckles and kisses Hiei. He kisses back, then helps lift her out of the tub, and he reaches for the baby. Me'ran almost pulls back, as reflex demands, and then she holds out the small child. Hiei takes her in his arms, and he takes her back to the nursery to wrap her in her clothes and the diaper. It was prepared by the couple and Kaze when Meru figured out she was pregnant again.

"Dad!" calls Kaze, suddenly from the doorway. "Rose fell out of the tree!"

"Unless something is broken, she'll get over it! If something _is_ broken, bring her inside and tell your mother," Hiei calls back.

* * *

They took a trip to Yukina's compound. Mainly because Meru wants Hiei to name the baby, and Hiei doesn't want to, and therefore Yukina is the next best thing.

_"Oh, Hiei! She looks just like my mother!" Yukina cries, cradling the baby to her breast. _

_"Mom, put it down before you want another one!" cries one of her two sons, identical twin boys with curly orange hair and narrow red eyes._

_"Hush!" commands Kuwabara. He's looking much older than he used to, and Hiei can almost pretend he holds some respect for him. He has calmed down and wisened up a little, and instead of a bulky guy, he is now a strong, middle-aged man._

_"Can you help us name her?" asks Meru sweetly, sipping at her tea. "I want Hiei to, 'cos I named the last two, and Hiei can't think of any."_

_"Oh!" Yukina answers, blushing furiously, looking up unwittingly at her brother and sister-in-law, before focusing her attention on the baby. "My mother's name was Hina," she says after a second. "But you don't look like a Hina, do you? Of course you're not a Hina. You're a Nina, aren't you? Nina-hime-chan?(2)"_

Hiei tucks Nina into her crib, knowing the brat will be awake in a matter of hours, screaming to be fed, but Me'ran's very quick to let them just cry themselves to sleep. But even as he stands up and prepares to go to the bed that Me'ran and he shares, he looks again at the baby, and he gets stuck.

Their fourth child. How old is Me'ran now, anyway? Eighteen... plus... How old was she.. twenty-four? She is in her forties...

This baby... Looks just like his mother. What he remembers of her... The baby yawns and rolls its head. He smiles. It really is amazing. So fucking small! Small, helpless, loudmouth pain in the ass, just wait 'til she walks... He leans into the crib (the sides are low, because Me'ran doesn't approve of the typical cribs, little prisons and cages.) and he kisses the child's forehead.

He goes to check on the others out of habit. Kaze has begun to wake up when his father cracks the door. "Close that, you bastard, you're letting the light in," he snaps. Hiei chortles.

"Depends. What weapon have you got in your hand?"

"One's on my dirk, the other's on my dick, and I'll stab you with the sharper one if you're lucky."

Hiei smiles again. Ah, that's my boy. And hers. Because the profanity didn't come from him.

Rose is lying on her back with her hair spread out over the pillow, spread eagle and with the thin blanket tangled in her legs. Aiko's curled tightly into a ball with her three huge down-quilts bundled around her, hiding all but her little mouth.

Hiei returns to his room and sits on the edge of the bed. It swings a little bit, and the chains overhead clink.

"I don't suppose you've--"

"I'm a human, Hiei. Even if I wasn't old, I wouldn't be able to recover so quickly."

He turns around, sitting cross-legged on the bed and looking her over. Her body was still slim and strong, but he could see the wear on her. Wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and at her mouth, graying hair. "You're not old."

She smiles. He's right, but she's still more than halfway there.

She pulls him to her and kisses him. "I love you, babe. What're you thinking about that's making your mouth do that?"

My mouth do what? Hiei almost attempts to look out of sheer dumbassery, but then his brain comes to and he realizes that his bottom lip is tense. He's kind of stuck smiling.

"You have beautiful children," he tells her. "Can't believe you made something half of me that good looking four times in a row.

"Actually, I think that new one is pretty much purely you, and you know the first one is," she says. "That's it for children, though. I'm getting too old."

"I love you," he tells her.

"I know."

She smiles at him, then pulls him into the bed with her, lying next to her, and he can hardly resist wrapping his arms around her before he goes to sleep.

* * *

(1)Just google "baby sling" and look at images.

(2)Sorry for the lapse of English, but I liked the sound of that.


End file.
